


The Magic Within

by Merrywise



Category: Case of Charles Dexter Ward - H. P. Lovecraft, Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Salem Horror - Henry Kuttner, Yog-Sothoth - Fandom
Genre: Action/Adventure, Dark Magic, Gen, Post-Hogwarts, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2020-11-26 22:15:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 33,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20937611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merrywise/pseuds/Merrywise
Summary: Amelia Prinn was working in her old store as usual, when something really strange happened. Miles away, Hermione Granger is given a new mission: to find out the source of a very unique burst of magic. She had no idea how dangerous this mission was going to be for her.Adventure, magic and horror. J.K. Rowling's universe mixes with H.P. Lovecraft's. More J.K. than H.P. though :PIt's finally completed!! It took me more time than I expected, but I had such a great time with this story! It was awesome to see how things developed.Thanks for reading ;)I will use a description made by raveninthewind (thank you so much!): "Lovecraftian plot, future casefic, Hermione-centric: All good elements. This is a dark story, but has a super interesting plot.".*English is not my native language.





	1. The Arrival

Another day, another group of customers waiting for her. Amelia Prinn opened the heavy curtains with a soft movement and let everyone in. They were all so excited, they usually were when it comes to visit her store. She had a huge quantity of memorabilia, little figurines that make everyone forget their problems and just get lost in the inmensity of the details and the intricate movements of every single one of the astonishing objects. It always made her happy to see the effect they had in people. Her father would be proud. Time passes so slow… if only there was something else to distract her. She sighed and continued her work. Little did she know that today she was going to experience a different and unexpected event.

  
It happened during her last working hour. The last customer left and she lowered the curtains to prepare for leaving. She heard a noise that made her turn so abruptly that she even felt a slight pain in her neck. It was as if something (or someone) fell right in the center of the shop. She just stood there for a good five minutes before regaining the strength in her legs. She looked around in order to find the source of the sound, but there was nothing there. How was it possible? It was so strange. And then she felt it… a _presence_. She stood motionless, trying to catch any sound or movement.  
Closing her eyes she tried to imagine her store and remember where everything was… a mental image. And something happened that almost made her fell to the ground. She felt how something warm and pulsing was flowing from her and sweeping every single corner of the place. It was like an energy wave, but how? She opened her eyes and saw with surprise that the energy wave she was imagining was clearly visible… and then she felt something again. It was as if the energy was concentrated in a single point, so she went to check it and found a small ball. Curious as she was, she prod it with the tip of her shoe and it rolled slow and heavily. Seeing that it was indeed something material, she gently lift it from the floor.  
It was heavy, but somehow it felt light at the same time. It was warm and made her fingers tingle softly.

  
"What in the world…?" she examined it and put it in an open box next to her desk and stood there watching it.

  
At the same time, miles away, a very busy Hermione Granger was finishing the last details of the complicated paper she was preparing. She had been working tirelessly for about a year now, but was extremely happy with the result. Everyone knows that she can´t be disturbed when she´s working on her projects, so there were no invitations waiting for her and no unwanted visitors to distract her. Now that she was free, she would have the time to focus on other things, and even though she just finished with a very demanding task, her mind was inmediately suggesting new and unknown mysteries to unfold... “there is so much to learn and discover!”, she says when her friends tell her that she should do other things.  
She was very relaxed thinking about fascinating topics to study like the nature of Dementors, Patronuses and several magical objects when she felt something strange. It was like a soft pull in the middle of her stomach. Similar to when she walks reading eagerly and misses a step in the stairs. What was that uneasy feeling? She stood up and looked around, but nothing seemed strange. The feeling ended as abruptly as it had started, leaving her wondering about it. An hour passed and she was still frowning and deep in thought when a loud pop was hear outside her door. The urgent knock startled her.

  
"Come in!" she said in a short breath  
"Miss Granger!" it was Stanley, the director of the Department of Mysteries. His eyes shining with something similar to a contained emotion.  
"Hello Stanley. What brings you here?"  
"Are you working on any project right now?" he asked looking around at her office, full of loose parchments and half-empty ink bottles.  
"I have just finished my paper and was thinking about my next adventure" she said with proud.  
"Excellent! I think I can help with that," he said at the same time that he started looking for something inside his robes.

He found a big envelope and handed it to her. She took it and opened it with curiosity. What would the department of mysteries want with her? As she read it, her face started to blush with excitement. It was an incredibly rare mystery, something she had been looking for in a long time.

  
The event happened in a muggle neighbourhood with no wizard community nearby. The urgency is to find the source of the burst of magic and identify if there is any risk to the muggle community living there. After that, it´s necessary to classify it accordingly; who is the responsible for such magical outburst? What was the need and the effect of it?...

"This looks quite interesting, to be honest. Are you sure this was in a muggle community?"  
"Yes, and there are no children of school age around, so the possibility of raw magic presenting itself for the first time must come from another source. We need to know if there was someone apparating there and performing magic, if that was the case, who was it and why?"  
"That really is fascinating. But if I may ask, why me? I know there are lots of trained aurors and officers that could manage that task easily," she said with complete honesty.  
"Your extense understanding in muggle society makes you the first option for this task in particular. Since the mission involves to mingle with the muggle community living there, it is of utmost importance to maintain the secrecy. And, as you know, many of our assets are not too good at keeping up appearances…" he said this last part in a kind of chuckle, but then looked at her with a serious look. She knew perfectly well the problems that can emerge when a wizard or witch is not careful around muggles.  
"I understand. It´s been a while since my last field job. Please tell your department that I will do everything in my power to get answers."

  
Stanley left with a smile and a nod. She sit in her comfy chair and read carefully all of the information about the event. It was at the same time as the strange feeling she had earlier, were they related? If so, what was it? Her head full of thoughts and her guts rebelled with joy at knowing that there was a new mission.


	2. Feels like forever

Was it a dream? It surely was. There was a small orb of some kind… and that feeling.

“What was it?”. Amelia put her hand in her chest and felt the beating of her heart. “What was it?” she said out loud. One look at the clock told her that it was earlier than usual, but since she couldn´t shake the uneasiness that was surrounding her, she decided that it was better to get up. Pacing around her living room her eyes fell on the bookshelf. There was a book about to fall. She was putting it back when the title made her frown.

“_The Spirit of the Magic Within_” by Bathilda Bagshot.

"Bathilda Bagshot? Bathilda…. _Bagshot_?" the name sounded strange, yet oddly familiar. She shut her eyes and made an effort to remember. The name definitely rang a bell in the back of her mind, but couldn't make it to recall it.

“Magic?” her other question floating in the air as she opened the book and started reading. There was something there, on the pages… the content was certainly interesting and this was surely going to be another page turner, but there was something else. She caressed the cover of the book with her hand, at the same time that she said the title out loud. And then… out of the blue, there was a glow coming from the pages, it was strong enough to make her squint her eyes and drop the book to the floor, where it crashed and closed. The glow dissapeared as soon as the book was closed.

  
Heart racing fast and out of breath, she gave a step back and look around. She was completely alone in her old house, but that glow surely was seen by everyone who had eyes. She went to the window and looked outside, as if looking for someone else to confirm that she wasn't going crazy right now. A book that glows? That made her suspect that maybe it wasn't a dream after all. She picked it up and slowly put it in her coffee table.  
In the center of the table she could see the small orb she saw yesterday. It was floating, yes… floating, in the center of the table. She was frozen. The image was quite hiptonizing. The floating object looked so inocent and yet she couldn´t make up her mind to grab it. Instead, she chose to sit right in front of it and look at how it floated. She even ventured to waved her hand below it just to see if there was some kind of magnetic field that could be interrupted. But nothing. Just the similar tingling sensation that she felt when she first took it yesterday.  
The clock striked eight o'clock and that was just the perfect time to start the day and begin a new working day. With that thought she turned her back to the floating object and walked across the room with her mind set. She was going to solve this mystery, because if there was something that really made her happy was that. To get an answer when the question seemed impossible, but this may be the cause that she doesn´t have any friends. If only she knew that not far away there was someone with a similar thinking, also obsessed with mysteries.

Hermione was checking a map when she found what she was looking for. It was a lovely shop across the street. The display cabinet immediately reminded her of Diagon Alley. There weren't boxes magically opening and jumping around or enchanted chocolate frogs, but there was definitely something strangely familiar. The feeling warmed her heart, that even without magic muggles were able to brighten their days. It reminded her of the day she got her Hogwarts letter and then everything made sense. She put the happy memory aside and crossed the street with a decisive step towards the store. People were already lined up and she counted eight others before her. As soon as she joined the line more people came after. She could count at least twenty other enthusiastic muggles before the line turn around the corner. What was it about this place that attracted so many people? She was wondering just that when a very soft and melodic chime announced that the store was open. She inmediatly felt it. A soft energy surrounding every person in the line. Witch as she was, she tried with all her might to identify the source, was it magic? She got to her tiptoes but couldn't see anything else, only that people were starting to enter.

"Welcome! Good morning!" a soft voice said from the inside.

As soon as she entered she knew. There was something special in here. She could feel it and her mission was to discover the source.  
She looked around looking for the owner but couldn´t find anyone. Inside the store there were sofas, comfortable chairs, tables filled with books and notebooks. Little and delicately ornated boxes with pencils of every kind and color. She felt so at ease that almost grabbed a book and sat to read (it was literally her favourite hobby). But she kept looking around instead. There were tiny objects all around the store and the combination of all of this made it look as if they were all inside a different world. Inspite of being surrounded by so many things and details, it wasn't messy. There was a special order to all of it and she was happily realizing this everywhere she looked. She was so fascinated with the strange design on the ceiling that didn´t notice someone coming closer. As soon as she lowered her eyes she found herself in front of a girl looking straight to her with a smile on her face.

"Hello. I haven't seen you before. I hope you like it here, please let me know if there is anything I can get for you to have a relaxing time. I will be more than happy to help". Her voice was soft but very clear

  
"Thank you! Yes, this is the first time I'm here. You have a lovely store!" she said looking around

  
"I try to make it comfortable for everyone, and as you can see, they seem to like it," she said smiling while gesturing towards the ongoing flow of customers entering the store.

Everyone seemed to have a place or an object in mind, because as soon as they entered they each went to a special book, item or chair in particular. It was like watching a rehearsed play. And the feeling of happiness and safety was overwhelming.

  
"It is remarkable. How long have you been here?" Hermione asked looking around at the very old looking furniture and returning to the strange design in the ceiling.

  
"It feels like forever," she said in a voice so soft and low that seemed that she was talking to herself.  
"This property has been in my family for centuries and it became a family tradition to add something personal to it. My father added the ceiling design, he loved to paint and was always saying that before he died, he would paint the ceiling. And he did."

  
"That is wonderful. Would you mind if I stay for a while? I would love to look around."

  
"Please do. That's the purpose of my store, to be a place where you can roam around safely. Feel free to ask anything you need, I can offer you tea, coffee and almost anything you may need to be comfortable. Please enjoy." And with a wink she left to greet some other customers.

This was incredible! She thought with a smile imprinted on her lips. A place where you can grab any book you want and read freely? Where do I sign? The thought made her chuckle. She turned and began to look around. Surely there was something there that could explain the surge of magic. But where to begin? Was it an enchanted object? Was it someone? She would definitely find the source.

The books section called her attention, as always. It was at the very back and dimly lit. She soon found herself completely absorbed in the fascinating titles. There were so many, some were little and the title was really hard to read. Others were huge and she would need both arms just to hold them open. And then she found something that really caught her eye.

There was a section behind the main bookshelf. Apparently not everyone knew about this, because it really looked hidden and out of boundaries. With a quick glance around, Hermione entered the small section. It felt different. The sound decreased immediately and the air was filled with something that made her feel really nostalgic. The only comparison she had for this was with the restricted section in the library at Hogwarts. The air seemed to be impregnated with old magic, but how? She couldn't use her wand right now, but she made a mental note about it for later.

The books were about old medicine and she couldn't help but smile when she read titles like “_Herbs for Ancient Ailments_”, “_A Potion for Every Distress_” and a particularly nasty-looking one that was called “_Medicine from the Hidden World_”.

The more she read, the more uneasy she felt. It was when she got to the middle section that her nervous system started to send some signals. “_The Sorcerer's Jewel_” was a very shabby book and when she took it, she noticed that it was way heavier than it looked. The first page had a written message, the ink almost dissapearing, in which the author recognizes the help given by “A. Prinn”, among some weird names and what looked like an incantation.

“A. Prinn”, the surname sounded vaguely familiar, but she would have to look into it carefully. She put the book back with particular care and that familiar feeling of dealing with magical objects.

"This mission just got a lot more interesting." she said to herself.


	3. Family Heirloom

After an hour of slow pacing and observation through very interesting (and some even disturbing) books, Hermione reached to the owner´s desk and saw happily that she was reading. She was so concentrated that didn´t notice anything around her. Hermione took the opportunity to read the title and as soon as she did, she felt petrified. 

"Do you need anything?"

A small touch in her hand made her startle. She look right into the girl´s eyes and noticed that she had a tinge of purple across the pupil that was really interesting.

"Are you OK? Do you need anything?" she repeated her first question.  
"Huh, yes. Ehm, I´m sorry I was distracted. Please excuse me for a moment." Hermione turned and took her bag out. She couldn’t believe it. One thing is to find somewhat magical books that could have been left behind by a traveler wizard or witch, but a muggle reading Bathilda Bagshot? How? She was stunned. It is known that some books are meant for the wizarding community alone, and Hermione never heard (or read) about any Bathilda Bagshot books reaching muggle bookstores. Stanley´s report was adamant about no wizard community nearby. How did that book get there? Was it related to the hidden bookshelf in the back? Several theories were developing in her fast mind. She was known for her power of deduction and this was truly something to decipher.

She was rummaging in her bag as an excuse and used the opportunity to look at the person reading the magical book. She was inmersed in it again. Hermione smiled when she recognized the feeling of loosing oneself in a book. And for a muggle, that book was surely something out of this world. She would definitely get to the bottom of this. It made her feel butterflies in her stomach, the feeling of a new mystery was always welcome. 

With a small nod to herself she straightened up and when she was about to talk to the girl with the book there was a loud POP just behind her. It was so loud and so out of place in the quiet store that most of the people there shouted and fled to the exit door in a whirlwind, looking behind their shoulders with rush apologies but without stepping down. When Hermione turned, she could see the remainings of some kind of magical aura. She squinted her eyes to try and catch the source of it, but it was already dissapearing. When she looked at the girl, she noticed that she was doing the same thing. “Could she see the magical aura?”, this was very interesting. When their eyes met, Hermione noticed that the girl was a little bit nervous.

"Are you OK?" she asked with concern, looking around her now empty store.  
"Yes, just a bit startled. And you?"  
"I´m OK. I don´t know what happened."  
"Sounded like…" (like a house-elf dissapearing, she thought and inmediately lost focus)  
"I heard that sound before, but it was ages ago! My father was painting the ceiling and I was reading down here…" she then looked at the book in her hands and frown. She turned it around, as if looking for something else. Hermione couldn´t help noticing this and took the oportunity to say something about it, trying to distract the girl from the subject, since she already had a suspicion from the book.  
"Sounded like a problem with an electrical device. Do you need help to check? I can also help you with this" Hermione gestured to the mess that was left behind after the hurried escape of the rest of the customers.  
She gave her a small smile and an honest “Thank you”, but frowned at the book in her hands and left it on the desk before going to the front door and turn the “open” sign to “closed”.

They were reorganizing the place for about half an hour, exchanging small comments about where should certain items go, and during one of this small conversations Hermione found herself in front of a cabinet holding just one item. It was so dimly lit and surrounded by so many different attractive objects that she thought it was meant to be kind of hidden. It was a wand. Since it was placed in a small stand it looked as if it was some kind of decorative item. But Hermione was completely sure that this was indeed a magical wand. There was no doubt about it. She came closer to look at it in detail and didn´t notice that the other girl said something. She had eyes only for the wand in front of her. Apparently there were symbols written in small letters around the grip, but it was too dark and they were too small to make anything from it. She would have to find a way to inspect it in more detail. 

"Did you find something interesting?" the girl said with a smile.  
"Actually, yes." she decided that the best course of action would be to ask directly. After carefully phrasing the question, she noticed that the girl looked at the wand and then frowned. Was she making connections between the book, the pop sound and the wand? Because Hermione already had.  
"That is a family heirloom. As far as I know, one of my ancestors was very interested in magic, enchantments and potions. This is the first time someone notices it." there was something in her tone, excitement?  
"That is very interesting. Family heirlooms make great stories. This object looks very old too."  
"I can let you look at it later, I need to find the key first."  
"That would be great, thank you! And speaking about families, I´m Hermione Granger, nice to meet you." she extended her hand to the girl.  
"Amelia Prinn, nice to meet you too." 

They shook hands and as soon as her hands were together, both of them felt an electrical wave traveling through their bodies. Hermione was the first to break the contact, talking about how her family heirlooms would be dentist materials and laughing, making Amelia laugh too, which Hermione thought it was the perfect way to calm down after so many discoveries. 

After saying good-bye and promising to return the next day, Hermione walked to the back of the alley and dissappeared on the spot. Once in her room, she started writing about everything she found. The store really looked as if a wizard lived there, but there is no record of wizards near the area, she would have to look in older records. The books that were clearly from magical source (she wrote all of the titles that called her attention in order to look for more information about them), a Bathilda Bagshot book (she was very interested in this), the wand, and last but no least, the strange energy that seems to flow from Amelia. 

"“Prinn”, why does it sound so familiar?" Hermione was talking to herself while trying to remember the thousands of books she has read, because she was sure about it, this isn´t the first time that she heard that name. She would have to ask for help in this matter, and there is only one person that could help her, someone with an extense knowledge about old families and books. Apparently, she would have to visit Malfoy Mannor once again and the thought was far from being appealing, but worst than doing something that she doesn´t like was the idea of knowledge within arm´s reach, that was definitely the best incentive.

After three more hours of walking around and writing and erasing dates, names and words, she sighed and started writing a note. Once it was done, she went to the window sill and looked up. It always made her smile how mail owls knew when someone needs to deliver a message.


	4. The Witch Room

“Yes!” and “Finally!” were the words repeating in Amelia's head. Now, where was that key?

There were so many things going over and over again in her memories. Today was really strange. First, the event that caused everyone to leave. She would have to come up with some kind of explanation for her customers, but that was the very least of her concerns.  
There was the strange and floating orb, the wave of energy that she clearly saw, the book about magic written by someone whose name sounded really familiar, the loud sound in her store… and Hermione Granger. There was definitely some kind of electricity when they shook hands. The only similar feeling she had was when she took the orb in her hands. It was a special kind of tingle. And she could swear that they were both looking at the energy wave right after the bang. Did she see it too? That would be so great, she really needed someone to talk about it.

She was thinking about all of this while searching for the key until she found what she was looking for. A small box embellished with symbols and what appeared to be letters of some kind. This box was so appealing when she was a kid! But she had never held it in her hands, her father would make sure of it. He always said that maybe she will be the lucky one to open the case. It was one of her favourite stories and she usually asked her father to tell it to her before going to sleep. And now it happened, someone has asked for it. She took it in her hands, appreciating the moment and felt a lump in her throat when she thought of happier days with her father, when he was still alive and full of joy. She opened the lid carefully and found a gorgeous key with a note inside:

“This key should only be use when someone asks for it, not before. It is of vital importance to follow this instruction!"

On the back of the note there was a symbol that reminded her of the designs made by her father on the ceiling. She knew where this key goes, she has known all of her life. Only one time she heard something about that room, her father was having an argument with a strange man, who called it “The Witch Room”, but as soon as he said it everything went silent and then she couldn't hear anything else. How weird that only now she remembered this.

With the key in hand she went to the only door she has never seen open. The same symbol was drawn in the center, funny, she didn't noticed it before. Her hand was shaking when she put the key in the lock. It was heavy and as soon as she opened the door, a rush of foul air crossed her face and made her sneeze. It was a big room, but extremely dark. There was a long window covered with thick curtains and there was no light whatsoever. Since the only source of illumination seemed to be an old candle over a small table, she went to the window and opened the curtains. The light was soft and illuminated half of the room. It amazed her that it was just like she had imagined it. There were so many strange things around, objects that she had never seen. And books… so many books! She decided that since it was finally time to open this door, surely these books could be rescued too. She would take them out later, because right now there was only one thing that she wanted to see.  
She knew where to look only because of her father's stories. He said that when the time comes, the door to this room would be opened and the black cabinet will reveal the key to the case. And there it was. A black cabinet as tall as she was, with only one bottom drawer open. She came closer to look at it and found a very small key, which she took with trembling hands and gleaming eyes.  
Finally…

Narcissa Malfoy was reading in her library when a tap on the window made her look up. There was an official looking owl waiting. She opened the window with a flick of her wand and the owl left as soon as she took the letter. It's been a while since the last time someone contacted her. Her eyes reading fast and with some kind of surprise. The last time that she talked with Hermione Granger was some time after the war, and it was reassuring to know that the girl was really mature about the past events. It was difficult to start again when everyone around you thinks you are suspicious and should be watched. Of course, the Potter boy had a lot to do with this, thanks to his absolute support after the Battle of Hogwarts.

The letter said that she would like to meet in order to discuss a case she is investigating. It has to do with what looks to be an ancient family. She wrote an affirmative reply at the back of the letter and sent it with her own owl. Not long after there was a knock on the door announcing the arrival of Hermione. After a short talk to catch up, Narcissa asked for more details about her visit.

"I know that I've seen this name before, but I just can't remember" Hermione said with frustration. Narcissa held out her hand and took the notes from Hermione's hands. As soon as she looked at the names written her face looked grim and pale, so much that when she heard her name her face was almost white.  
"Are you OK?" Hermione said with concern in her voice, looking at her.  
"Yes, I'm sorry. It just took me by surprise. I know these names…"  
The tone she used in her last sentence made Hermione feel uneasy, but extremely curious at the same time. This last sentiment was stronger and she couldn't help but to ask a full round of questions. Narcissa raised her hand and stopped this never ending flow.  
"I know these names, but I'm afraid to say that they are linked to the worst dark stories and legends I can think of."

Hermione shuddered involuntarily and the light seemed to faded a bit. Narcissa motioned the girl to take a sit, and then looked at the name written on the parchment.

"The Prinn family was known for their rites and an unnatural obsession with what they called the “hidden worlds”. Back in the early 1600, it was known that the Prinn family members were looking for ways to upgrade their magic and discover new and better ways of harnessing the magic within. This lead to deep conversations among clans and geographies, intensive studies of wandmaking and even it's rumored to be the origin of one of the most evilish acts in magic. I asked my father about it once and he told me that I should never ask about that name again, because it was taboo. And since he told me not to, I had the urgency to know more. You know well that it is almost inevitable for us Black to do as we are told" she said this with a small smile and then continued.

"I spent a whole year reading every title I could from our extense library. I found nothing and I was starting to discourage, but then I saw a book called “Magical Families in the World”. It was huge and I had to drag a chair to reach it, apparently the sound called the attention and I was soon being dragged by my mother out of the room, with the warning that I should never take that book again alone. Funny thing is, when I got the chance to do it, it just wasn't appealing anymore. I guess it wasn't the right time."

She stood and opened a glass door, then used her wand to levitate one of the biggest books Hermione had ever seen… and that is saying something.  
Then opened it and started to scan it until reaching the letter P. There were about five names in the list, but one of them caught Hermione's attention, since there was a warning sign next to it.

“Prinn, Abigail. This text was banned for public knowledge. If more information is needed, please contact a representative of the Department of Mysteries.”

They looked at each other and Hermione was surprised to see Narcissa rolling her eyes. With a quick movement of her wand the message vanished, replaced by a couple of lines about Abigail Prinn. Hermione silently congratulated herself for asking the right person about it. She would have wasted a lot of time with the formalities.

The text was written in old English and some of the words were actually erased and didn't appear even after some clearly dark spells by Narcissa. The only readable information was that Abigail Prinn was a witch that lived in Salem, Massachusetts. She was associated with the Dark Arts, specially rituals meant to summon a “higher entity”. These rituals got worse with time, and eventually she was captured and executed in 1690 after a series of muggle disappearances. The case was so terrible and the amount of muggles affected was so big, that it led to the establishment of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. Unofficial records state that she cursed the town, which ultimately resulted in the infamous Salem Witch Trials two years later.

After reading it thoroughly over and over again, Narcissa put the book back and they stood there for a moment, processing the information.

"I'm sorry I can't be of any more help. I do remember that we couldn't ask questions about this family or anything related to it. It was something that went beyond the dark magic. The last time I heard the name was during a research I did on portals. Two centuries after Abigail's execution, her name reached a paper about an alleged portal to another world. The case was closed without much investigation and I couldn't even use it for my research. I would love to know more about it, if you found more information, that is." She said with complete honesty.

"I will remember that. Thank you very much for all of this, it really helps with the case. You have given me a lot to think about, and you know I'm not complaining…" This made them both laugh heartily, which was really welcome after such a dark subject of conversation.

Once in her room, Hermione couldn't help but feel extremely anxious. She will go back to the store tomorrow as early as possible.


	5. The Nightmare

Amelia woke up with a start, it was dark and cold. She looked around her room with the nasty feeling that she wasn´t really alone. She tried to turn on the lights, but there was no electricity. She instinctively grab hold of her sheets and tried to get used to the darkness. She started to scan the room and check that everything was just as she remembered, and when she looked at the left corner, she saw a strange shadow… it looked like someone, until it moved very slowly. Her heart started to race furiosly in her chest. The shadow glided a bit closer, and it turned what appeared to be the head towards her bed. Amelia could feel a scream trapped in her throat, her entire body frozen to the spot, all she could do was to look… When the shadow was reaching her bed, she could feel her skin full of goosebumps, but still couldn´t move a muscle. Then everything happened really fast. As soon as the shadow extended a hand towards her, an explosion of light erupted from somewhere. It was so bright and it was so sudden that she couldn´t see clearly. And then she woke up. She was alone… sitting in her bed, sweating and breathing as fast as she could, but she was also almost blinded.

After the shock of waking from a nightmare, she got up and went to the bathroom. She was used to live alone and was proud to think that she could recognize every sound that her old house made. From the loose wooden board at the foot of the stairs to the occasional sound that came from the antique cabinet that would make anyone jump every now and then. She grew up surrounded by millions of objects and their respective stories, some of them really dark according to most people. She couldn´t understand why would people be afraid of the dark, when it was so appealing. She stopped, frowned and finally blushed from anger at the thought of how scared she was, even though it was just a nightmare. That never happened before.

After finishing breakfast, she went to check on her new floating and glowing friend. When she looked at it she thought it looked strangely familiar. And then it hit her… when the shadow was turning in her dream, she saw that where a head would normally be, there was only one eye. The idea made her shiver.

The clock announced that it was three in the morning. Hermione couldn´t sleep and decided to use the time in a productive way. She was analizing everything she saw, heard and felt in order to fill a good report for Stanley, and she couldn´t help but feel excited about all of it. When she was writing about the electrical wave that she felt when she shook Amelia´s hand, she dedicated a few moments to think about the girl. She was almost her age, maybe a year or two older. Was it possible that she was the responsible for the surge of magic? She asked Stanley for help in order to get any records available about magic manifesting in older people. Then she wrote the titles she needed to find: “The Sorcerer´s Jewel” and “The Spirit of the Magic Within”. It was too bad that Narcissa didn´t have any information about them, it was the first question she wrote in her owl. Now she would have to wait for them.

She has always been well organized and studying for long hours was never an issue, and this time she was so inmersed in the task at hand that didn´t notice the owl that was coming closer to the window.

\- Crash! – the sound of the window breaking was loud enough to wake anyone in their sleep, and it didn´t help Hermione that she was awake, because it made her fell from her chair. She stood up with a grunt and searched for the culprit. A blind owl was trying to get on top of the sofa and although it was funny to see his attempts, it made her feel sorry for the bird. When she got near, the owl looked at a point very close to where she was standing and extended a leg. It was carrying a green parchment, which she removed carefully.

After giving some treats and water to the poor owl, she looked at it go out of the window and wondered how on earth a blind owl would be considered “safe”. Shaking her head, she started reading the note and a big grin crossed her face. She put it in her pocket and started to prepare for her trip to Amelia´s store.

When she turned around the corner she saw that people were stopping at the front door for a few seconds and then leaving with clear dissapointment. When she got to the door she saw a note apologizing for the inconveniences and explaining that the store would be closed for a couple of days for repairs. She saw Amelia coming to the door, she talked with some of the people outside for a second and they seemed very sympathetic, and soon everyone started to leave. Once they were inside, Amelia closed the curtain door and offered her tea, but she was so nervous and anxious that couldn´t drink anything right now. The other girl seemed to be in a similar state, because soon after she started to walk inside, stumbled and almost fell, but Hermione caught her before that. They were close enough to look in each other´s eyes. The purple tinge in Amelia´s pupil was deeper now, it was mesmerizing. Amelia looked at her with gratitude, and curiosity.

"Do you work alone here?" Hermione asked quickly, looking around the store and at the design on the ceiling.  
"Yes, this store has been in the family for as long as anyone can remember. I worked with my father until he died."  
"I´m sorry to hear that."  
"No problem. It was ages ago. And I know it may sound cheesy, but I feel as if he´s always with me. I have his paintings and presents everywhere I go, and I can almost hear his voice when I look at his photos."  
"That is really nice."  
"I even used to play hide and seek here with him… it was mental!" both of them laugh at the idea.  
"You must know this store like the back of your hand then. Before I forget, I saw a couple of books around that I would like to check sometime, if that´s not a problem". Hermione said with a smile, trying to change the subject.  
"Of course not! Please do. I would love to help. What books are you interested in?"

  
Thinking that it may be a little bit risky to ask about such books just before asking about the wand, she followed the plan that she carefully put together.

  
"I can´t remember the names, but I will let you know when I see them. I guess I will need to look for them again."  
"Excellent. I could show you the case now if you like. I found the key" she said this last part with proud. The moment she awaited for so long was finally here.  
"That would be excellent! Lead the way."

The case was beautiful. Now that it was under the light, she noticed that there was a note behind the wand.  
Amelia took the key and very slowly put it in the keyhole. She was taking her time, savoring this precious moment. She almost laugh when the idea of all of this being a prank from her father crossed her mind. But no. He wouldn´t joke with these things. She noticed that everytime he talked about this, his tone of voice transmited respect and something close to fear. This only made her expectations go wild, she imagined so many things that surely reality was going to be really dissapointing.

She was wrong.


	6. Appare Vestigium

Stanley was reading Hermione´s detailed report and sighed. Finally there were some answers, but then he frowned thinking about the meaning of all of this. He started making some notes, the name Abigail Prinn would be the starting point of his investigation. He knew about the name, it was one of the darkest subjects he ever found. The idea of the Prinn family involved in the recent events made him feel extremely uneasy. Abigail Prinn was one of the darkest witch ever alive and her ambition and obsession with other dimensions went to unthinkable limits.

The atrocities commited to muggles centuries ago still had some repercusions. At least, no one could ever found any evidence of the supposed portal that some rumors said she was conjuring. But the lack of confirmation meant nothing, after discovering about Voldemort´s horcruxes it was clear that no theory could be disregarded. And in this case, they would need to be prepared for anything. He asked for the books Hermione needed and any information related to them.

At last he gathered and organized all of the notes in the form of a long letter and use his wand to send it. He looked at the paper aeroplane leaving his office knowing that it would take a while to get an answer. Unspeakables were known for taking their time, but they had time. Or at least he think they did.

Back in Amelia´s store, Hermione was paying close attention to the girl in front of her. She would need to report about every situation related to this case, so it was important that she could remember well. The girl looked nervous, but at the same time in full control and she was looking at the wand with something close to admiration.

"Would you like to take it out?" Amelia asked Hermione, who quickly look from the girl to the wand, her mind racing furiously. Why did she not think about this? Of course, the idea of holding an old magical wand was extremely appealing, but what if there was some residual spell or any way that her own magic would give her away? And then… this same idea made her think that it could be the perfect opportunity to solve part of this mistery at least. She just needed to keep an eye on.

"Sure! Thank you!"

When her hand was inches from the wand she could feel it vibrate. It was as if it was eager to get out or to be held once again. When she grabbed it, she felt her own magic churn inside her and it was as if a secret war was going underway her own skin. She tried to look carefully at the wand, trying to identify the engraved letters, but it was difficult to concentrate on anything with that kind of internal distraction. It would take almost all of her self-control to act as if nothing was happening. She looked at Amelia out of the corner of her eye and noticed that she was very still and watching her every move. She wouldn´t take her eyes off the wand, as if waiting for something to happen. After a few moments, Hermione realized that she would definitely need more time alone with this wand, right now her entire body seemed to want to get as away as possible from it. With a final look at the letters, she extended the wand to Amelia.

"It´s a beautiful object. What do you know about it?"

Amelia was distracted by the question and absentmindedly reach for the wand at the same time that she opened her mouth to answer. But no sound came from it, because as soon as her hand touch it, the most amazing thing happened.

First, she felt a warmth in her fingers. It quickly traveled through her entire body, making her feel as if she had just drank a very hot coffee, only that it was spreading everywhere. It was the most wonderful feeling and as she was starting to enjoy it and trying to identify these new sensations she looked at Hermione. The look on her face confirmed Amelia´s suspicions. She was sure that Hermione knew that there was something happening. Suddenly and before she could do or say anything else, she felt the urgent need of raising the wand abover her head. A word crossing her mind. She felt hypnotized and just followed the orders sent her way.

“_Appare Vestigium_” Amelia said with a voice that didn´t sound like her and with a lost look.

Hermione´s eyes widened at the scene in front of her. Amelia was surrounded by a glowing aura and as soon as she cast the spell, a blinding light erupted from the wand and reached every corner of the store. When the light started to diminish, Hermione noticed that there were around ten human silhouettes standing in what looked to be a circle around them, the light never reaching their bodies. Amelia didn’t seem to notice this and they were already dissapearing when she spoke again.

"Did you see it?" Amelia said panting and looking wildly to the wand in her hands.  
"Yes! Did you know what it was?" Hermione asked with excitement, careful not to look scared or give too much information beforehand.  
"I guess I have an idea, but I never expected something like this to happen!" she was beaming and so happy with the recent event, that Hermione decided that it was best to keep the other piece of information to herself. At least for now.  
"What did you see? Did you feel anything?"  
"Yes, I felt _everything_. I really don’t know how to explain it. For a second I thought that I was going to burn inside. But not in a bad way… I don´t know. I have never felt anything similar before."  
"And what did you see?"  
"Light. So much light! I thought I saw you and…" she stopped abruptly and frowned. What did she really see? She was sure about the light, but then there was something else. At first she thought it was Hermione looking at her, but now that she was trying to remember she wasn’t really sure. It was something dark that reminded her of the shadow in her recent nightmare.  
"And?" Hermione asked with interest.  
"And then I felt it go away… the light I mean." She was nervous. Should she trust Hermione with what she just saw?

Their conversation was interrupted by a sound coming from the nearest window, which Amelia opened and a big owl entered the room. Hermione went to retrieve the letter, but was surprised to see that the owl looked at Amelia and lifted the leg that had a letter attached. She took it with trembling hands, looking at the menacing bird. Once she got it safely in her hands, the owl looked at Hermione, turned and then flew through the open window.

Amelia was at a loss of words. She looked at the letter in her hands and noticed that it wasn´t a regular paper, but some kind of parchment. She could read her name and exact location in it. She showed it to Hermione, who just smiled and nodded in an encouraging way.  
Amelia started to read the letter, her eyes were going fast and she was looking increasingly surprised. When she finished, she read it again and then offered it to Hermione, because she already knew deep inside her that the other girl wouldn´t be as surprised as she was with that information. And as expected, when Hermione took the letter and read it, a smile crossed her face.

"I am a witch! Is this for real? Are you a witch too?" Amelia couldn´t contain her happiness. This could answer so many questions! It would explain a lot of things. She looked eagerly to Hermione, who just nodded and smile again.

They talked for a very long time, Amelia asking about the magical world and Hermione asking about any strange event that she could have experience before now. Amelia told her about the book she found and went to her desk to get it.

“The Spirit of Magic Within”, I´ve never heard about Bathilda Bagshot, but the name looks familiar."  
"She is a famous writer in the magical world, I wonder how this book got here in the first place." Amelia gave it to her and she looked at it before putting it in her bag.  
"I don´t know either. I found it not long ago, just after I found the… OH! I need to show you something, but it´s at my house. Would you like to come? Or maybe tomorrow? I´m so excited right now that I´m not sure if I´ll be able to sleep."  
"I know the feeling, but I think it will be better tomorrow. There are some things I have to do tonight."  
"Of course, tomorrow it is then. Oh, I´m so happy!"

Amelia couldn´t help but hug Hermione, who was surprised, but returned the hug with a grin. She could still feel the electric wave around them and even after Hermione left, but this time Amelia knew she wasn´t imagining it. She was a witch. And she received a letter saying that she would have a meeting with a couple of wizards who will explain everything. They knew Hermione was there and that she could explain the basics. Magic was really incredible. Tomorrow she would show her the orb and maybe she could explain the meaning of it all. For now, it was time to rest.

A very nervous Hermione was pacing around her room, trying to find the words to explain everything that she saw today. How did Amelia cast "Appare Vestigium" without any kind of practice? Was it really her? She looked as if she was in a trance. What where those 10 shadows? Why didn´t Amelia see them? Are they related to her? To the Prinn family? And there was also the thing that Amelia wanted to show her. She took the book out and looked at it with curiosity, then went to her favourite couch and summoned tea and cookies. It was going to be a very long night…


	7. Books and revelations

Hermione couldn´t even begin to relax in her couch. She kept thinking about the silhouettes and whether Amelia had something to do with it. Or at least her body. She didn’t mentioned any of that and Hermione was sure that she wasn’t hidding it, she just failed to see it. Which led to her concern… how was she able to cast that spell?

Two owls entered through the opened window making a fuss, they were carrying a big parsel and were waiting patiently for Hermione to take it, but looked eager to leave. Along with the parsel there was letter. It was from Stanley and he was happy to inform that he found the books she needed. He congratulated her for the comprehensive reports she was delivering and offered his help in case she needed it. It also mentioned the magical outburst originating in Amelia´s store and how it had put the whole department in motion, he will inform her about the course of action, right now the instruction is to keep an eye on her and inform about any new magic or discovery as soon as possible.

Stanley mentioned in a note that there have been some isolated cases of magic manifesting in adults, but they were usually squibs. Nothing like what Amelia experienced, which led to other theories, most of them related to her family name. He would send her more information as soon as he got it.

Hermione finished reading the letter and put it next to the book she was reading. She then realized that there was something different in the book Amelia lend her and the one sent by Stanley. Both of them were written by Bathilda Bagshot, but Amelia´s had some minor differences, she couldn’t put her finger on it and decided to try something.

She took her wand and cast “_Specialis Revelio_”. Amelia´s book lifted in the air and a golden light surrounded it for a few seconds.

When she opened it she noticed that several notes appeared around the pages. There were notes about how to suppress the magic and release it when it’s mature, there was a very detailed note about the techniques that should be used and she noticed that in smaller writing were the instructions to prepare a potion that should be taken for the same purpose. Hermione was fascinated by all of this new information and immediately started to write a note to Stanley to mention it.

She decided to include the thirteen names that were written next to a very elaborated design (which was very similar to the design painted by Amelia´s father on the ceiling of her store). With special care she wrote _Gomory, Zagan, Sytry, Eligor, Durson, Vual, Scor, Algor, Sefon, Partas, Gamor, Umbra _and_ Anaboth_. She never heard about them, but she was sure that Stanley would be able to find more information. Could they be related to the ten silhouettes?

She was going to take her time to study the book in close detail, for now she left it on the table and started to write a small note to Narcissa. She would love to hear her opinion on this matter, but she had the feeling that Stanley would not like this very much, for now she would treat her as a secret source of information. It was going to take time for everyone else to look at her other than as the wife of a Death Eater, but eventually they will see that she could be a very valuable resource. She went to her window and waited for the mail owl to arrive.

She also needed to check whatever Amelia had to show her, and after the wand she was sure that it was going to be something interesting. It was too bad that the way her body reacted to the wand made it impossible for her to concentrate on the object itself, because now she couldn’t remember any of the letters engraved. She would have to look at it in more detail as soon as possible.

At last, she was trying to remember if she felt anything different, but the only thing that came to mind was fear.

Far away, an intrigued Narcissa Malfoy decided that instead of waiting, she would start her own private investigation. This time with all the Black and Malfoy resources available to her, with the support of Hermione Granger and with time. She would have the time to read every book related to the Prinn family, now the challenge was to find them. And Black mansion would be the perfect way to start.

The Black family claim to have entirely magical ancestry and traces its origin back to the Middle Ages. It´s no wonder that the Black library would have a building on its own. Now that she had experience with the dark arts and after everything she lived during the second war, she was sure that this time, she would not leave empty-handed.

The library was truly impressive. She wouldn’t dare to guess the amount of books it held, and even if she did, there were several secret passeageways where more dangerous or ancient books could be hidden. It was dark, cold and the air was impregnated with old magic. There was a circle drawn in the center. She walked straight to it and took out her wand. Concentrating hard on the name “Prinn”, she cast a silent spell and waited.

When she looked around, five books were flying her way and landed neatly in a table nearby.

"Only five? _Really_?" she said raising an eyebrow, with surprise and a little bit of dissapointment in her voice.

The first book was about old families around the world and their contributions to the magical community, Prinn named was mentioned but it was strucked through.

The second was about forbidden dark magic and the name Abigail Prinn was mentioned, but with the warning that her case should never be released to public knowledge.

The third book was heavy and it was about potions. Abigail contributed to the magical world with several potions, some of them banned because they would require the use of blood from muggles.

The fourth book included drawings of magical circles, it had strange symbols written all around it and she couldn’t make anything from it.

She opened the last book that was about medieval treaties and how they affected the territories of several magical families. When she found the name Prinn, it was only to find a description of the old Prinn house, she closed it fast and with a small growl.

She was extremely dissapointed and a bit angry, but determined. When she was walking to the center of the building once again, she heard a rasping sound coming from one of the walls. She went to check and inmediately sensed that it must be one of the secret passeways she knew existed. Using her wand she made a complicated movement and murmured some words, the wall vanished and revealed the entrance to a very cold and dark corridor. A book was floating in the middle of it and when she took it, she could feel something unnerving.

It was a large volume, bound in faded black leather called “_Secrets of the Darkest Arts: Forbidden Annex_”. She skimmed the book and learned that it had a lot of information about portals to different worlds and dimensions, and it documented some cases were wizards tried to use their magic in order to summon other entities.

There was a whole chapter dedicated to Abigail Prinn and how she appeared to have magic “_unlike that of wizards_”. The hidden cults to which she belonged often guarded and handed down surprising secrets from elder, forgotten aeons and there was evidence that she had actually mastered the art of passing through dimensional gates. Narcissa gasped at this information. It also made reference to an “ancestral property” situated in Massachusetts, where she attempted to summon an entity known as “_Yog-Sothoth_”, but the rest of the information was burnt and no spell was able to reveal it.

She made the books levitate and headed fast to the mansion in order to send a message to Hermione.

Amelia woke up sweating and with her heart racing. It was dark and cold and that reminded her of her previous nightmare. She inmediately looked to the corner, but there was nothing there. She got up and saw a glow coming from under the door. She opened it and looking down she could see a golden path glowing at her feet, then followed it and noticed that it led to where the orb was.

The orb was still floating, but this time there appears to be a pulse coming from it, because every few seconds a golden wave surrounded it and spread across the room, where it dissappeared. She was fascinated by this and came closer to look. Suddenly, the orb lifted and floated right in front of her face, where it stood in the air going a little bit up and down. Amelia could hear a woman´s voice coming from it and said only one word: “_Soon_”.

Right after that the orb dissapeared making the same noise she heard a couple of days ago. The voice saying “_soon_” was still echoing and made her entire body tremble and her legs failed, falling to her knees.

For the first time in her life, she was scared about what the future may hold.


	8. The Meeting

Hermione was trying to reproduce every symbol she could remember seeing in Amelia´s store. When she looked around she saw the books sent by Stanley. She got up and was heading towards one of them when a familiar owl approached her window. She let it open and went straight to take the note in its leg. It was from Narcissa and she was still in the process of reading it when a patronus in the shape of a seagull came flying and Stanley´s voice filled the room.

“Miss Hermione Granger, your presence is required for an urgent meeting. Please come to level nine as soon as possible”

Hermione quickly got dressed, stowed her wand in the special pocket on her robes and apparated away. It was so early that the only people around were the cleaning operatives and the guards. She was fidgeting when the lift opened to revealed the long corridor of level nine. When she opened the door of the meeting room, her eyes fell inmediately on a familiar face and she felt happy, in spite of everything that was happening.

Harry Potter was standing beside a round table in his official auror robes and looked at her with a big smile on his face. Around the table she was surprised to see a serious looking centaur, a couple of wizards, a vampire and finally Stanley.

“Everyone, this is miss Hermione Granger,” said Stanley once she entered. “Miss Granger, you already know Harry Potter, of course. Let me introduce you to Kaleipus, leader of the centaur colony that resides near the Miskatonic region, next to him you can see Cameron and Dora Altree, who are Unspeakables. And finally Henry, who kindly offered his knowledge and help with the matter at hand.”

She gave a quick hug to Harry and shook hands with everyone else. After the presentation, the friendly smiles were replaced by looks of urgency and she could feel the tension increasing around her. Stanley motioned her to sit next to Harry and once she was comfortable he handed her a parchment. As she was reading, her hands started to shake and her eyes widened. She finished and looked around.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked with a trembling voice.

“I´m afraid so. We are here to discuss how to handle this situation. As you now know, Amelia Prinn is the direct descendant of Abigail Prinn, who we can confirm was the author of terrible events, the majority resulting in the dissapearing, torturing or murdering of muggles. Her name has been associated with the darkest acts of magic, and some even believe that Abigail cast a curse on her own blood line that was supposed to resurface after many generations.

What you mentioned happened when Amelia touched the wand and the appearance of the dark silouettes around both of you is very concerning. The fact that Amelia didn’t see them gives us some hope though. It is very likely that the curse has been building up for generations and that the effect could be seen only after a very specific enchantment is done. That is why we need to keep a close eye on her. Now about the names you wrote in your last message, Henry, if you please…”

Henry the vampire nodded. “I heard those names centuries ago, as far as I know, they are related to a cosmic entity and it´s very likely that books with its name are hidden or were completely destroyed. Even if you get to find one of those books, you will probably need a certain set of skills in order to be able to read it.”

At this, Hermione took out Narcissa´s note and handed it to Stanley. “I think we could use her help with this,” she said. Stanley looked from the note to Hermione with some apprehension, but nodded and passed it around everyone present. Harry manifested his support inmediately, Cameron and Dora looked at each other, frowned but accepted at the end. The rest had no objection about it.

“Very well. Now we need to discuss the next step. There have been reports about a strange activity in the depths of the Miskatonic region.” He made a sign to Kaleipus, who looked very serious.

“My colony has feel extremely restless the last days. There are rumours about old magic resurfacing deep in the region, where no living being dares to go. Also, the stars are revealing a disturbing message for us, but we will not stand back this time. We will help.”

“That is excellent. We will need to work together in order to keep this a secret from the general community, but we also need to be prepared. Henry, would you be able to search for any books or documents about this cosmic entity?” Henry nodded.

“Cameron and Dora will be in charge of disregarding any rumours about this case. They will stay alert about any changes around the wizarding community. Now, we want to ask you to do something that may be really dangerous. You can refuse, of course.” He stared at Hermione, who shooked her head and expressed her willingness to help in every possible way.

“We need you to go to the Miskatonic region with Amelia,” Hermione was going to object, but Stanley stopped her. “We need to keep her under constant vigilance from now on. Any new surge of magic should be supervised and recorded. Mr. Potter will join you for protection and I think we all agreed that it will be a good idea to include Narcissa Malfoy, if she agrees, of course. We can´t deny that her knowledge in the Dark Arts could be extremely useful for this mission. Kaleipus will guide you through part of the way. After that, you will have to continue your journey until you reach the spot we will mark on your map.”

“Amelia said that there was something else she wanted to show me. After the wand, I can only think that it may be another magical object. I will report about it ASAP,” Hermione said with determination.

A feeling of restlessness surrounded the group, they all stood up at the same time, say their respective goodbyes and agreed to put the plan in motion inmediately. Hermione came close to Harry as they were walking along the corridor. “Why on earth would you use a blind owl to send support messages?” Harry laughed heartily at this. “I lost a bet. It´s really good to see you ´Mione. It´s been too long now. Ron sends his regards too, you know that he would love to come, but he needs to take care of his newborn,” he said to her at the same time that they entered the lift.

“Of course. Oh Harry, do you think this will be as dangerous as I think it will? Or am I just going crazy again?” she said with dispair.

“If that results to be case, we will be ready. This time we are stronger,” he said with such bravery that Hermione couldn’t help but feel that way too.

They separated at the atrium with the promise to reunite later at Hermione´s, where she would wait with Amelia.

Amelia awoke suddenly with a sound on her window. She had fallen asleep on the floor. She opened the window and a small owl entered the room. She took the letter out of its leg with a smile and saw it flew on top of the closest chair, where it seemed to be waiting. It was a message from Hermione saying that she needed to talk to her as soon as possible and that she could send her answer with the same owl. Amelia wrote something at the back of the message, attached it carefully to the bird´s leg and went upstairs to get ready for her visit.

Ten minutes later a knock on the door announced Hermione´s arrival. She was impressed with Amelia´s house and decided that maybe Cameron or Dora could take a look around, in case there was something else related to Abigail.

“So, what brings you here so early?” Amelia said with a yawn.

“I´m sorry to bother you, but I really need to talk to you about a trip we want you make”

“We?”

“The people in charge of supervising the awakening of wizards and witches,” Hermione lied and continued “your case is very special, since magic tends to manifest itself in younger people. That is why we would like you to accompany me and two others in a small quest. What do you think about it?”

Amelia loved the idea and was starting to ask some questions when she stopped and rememberd about the orb. She explained everything to Hermione, since the day it appeared to its dissapearing this morning. Hermione nodded and said that she would investigate it, but surely was nothing to worry. Internally, she hated to lie like this, but for the moment it would be the best. Amelia finished organizing her things for the journey and looked eagerly at Hermione.

“OK. I´m going to apparate us to my place. You will feel a strong pull inside of you, but don´t worry, I´m an expert,” she said with a wink. Stanley had told her to apparate with her in order to check her reaction.

Amelia came closer to Hermione, who grabbed her by the waist and told her to hold tight. She noticed that the purple tinge in Amelia´s eyes was getting deeper, but thought that her own eyes would also changed in anticipation of her very first apparition.

“Ready?” Amelia nodded and then she experienced the most awkard feeling ever, and when she opened her eyes she found herself in a completely different place.

“I love magic,” she said and fainted.


	9. The Journey Begins

Hermione put Amelia in a sofa and started to write a note to Cameron and Dora explaining all about the strange orb Amelia mentioned. If it dissapeared like that, there may still be some magic dormant in the house. They would also need to check for any other magical object that may be around. She was attaching it to an owl when a pop outside her door announced the arrival of Harry.

“Hello again… Everything OK?” he said as he entered the room and looked around, eyeing Amelia lying on the sofa.

“Hi Harry. Yes, she just fainted after the apparition. I told Stanley that it may be too intense for her, but he insisted,” she shrugged.

“So… what do you think about all of this?” Hermione asked at the same time that she took out some notes and a couple of butterbeers.

“That’s a conversation that would be best accompanied by a good old firewhisky, too bad we need to apparate again so soon”. He said and took a sip of his butterbeer. “I have no idea what to expect, to be honest. I heard some very disturbing things before you arrived at the meeting, and they all appeared to be kind of scared. I’m sure that Stanley didn’t share all of the information, well... he is an Unspeakable.” Harry was looking at Amelia.

“This is getting very strange. I thought it was a unique case with Amelia being older than the average, but this whole thing about Abigail Prinn frightens me. Listen, Harry, I know I’m not suppose to share more information than the one Stanley authorizes, but I need to tell you something,” she said and took Harry to the other side of the room, without taking her eyes off Amelia, who was sleeping. She was very shocked about the silouhettes she had seen and Harry frowned and nodded.

“So she cast _Appare Vestigium_ and right after that the shadows appeared? How long did they stay there?” he asked.

“They appeared when the light was diminishing… I could see them for only two or three seconds, no more. They were in a kind of circle around us, right under the strange design on the ceiling painted by Amelia’s father. I already told Cameron and Dora to check it. Luckily, Amelia packed the old wand along with her things. I think it’s a good idea to check it as soon as the opportunity presents, I need to know if you feel something odd too”

“Of course. We need to continue this later, I think she’s waking up”

And indeed, Amelia streched her arms and legs letting out a high pitch sound. Then she looked around, still bleary-eyed and noticed Harry and Hermione looking at her. She blushed furiously and covered her face with her hands.

“I´m sorry! I thought I was alone!” they looked at each other and started to laugh. She laughed too and stood up rubbing her eyes.

Hermione came closer and introduced her to Harry, who shook her hand as they smiled. She explained her about the apparition she just experienced and that they were at her house, waiting for another member of the group. Then she let her talking to Harry and started to prepare her things for the upcoming journey.

Half an hour later, a pop was followed by a soft knock on the door. Harry opened and Narcissa Malfoy entered the room. She was wearing muggle clothes and nobody would have think that she was a witch.

She wanted to greet Harry with a handshake, but he was faster and gave her a small hug. She looked at Hermione and smiled. Then she was introduced to Amelia, who looked kind of nervous and greeted her with a well-mannered, discreet nod of the head. They shared a small talk about magic and Amelia was amazed with the way Hermione shrunk all of her things and put them in a small bag. Soon they were filled with the same feeling of eagerness that is usually experienced when a journey is about to begin.

And this was no ordinary journey.

They were getting the last of their things ready when an owl entered the room. It was a message from Stanley saying that Kaleipus would be waiting at the spot magically marked in the map attached. Harry opened the map and prod it with the tip of his wand. A spot started to appear next to what looked like the entrance to a huge forest.

“Amelia, we are going to apparate again, but don’t worry, we will take care of you until you feel better.” Hermione said and the girl nodded nervously. “She fainted after her first apparition here” Hermione explained to Narcissa.

“Maybe I can help with that” Narcissa said. She opened her bag, cast _Accio_ and a small bottle came floating to her hand. She read the label and nodded. “This is a kind of sedative, but you won’t feel drowsy, it’s just to help you endure the apparition.” She handed it to Amelia, who took it with surprise, but drank it in one gulp.

“Thank you very much, madam Malfoy,” she said with an honest smile as she returned her the small bottle.

“Oh, please. Just call me Narcissa.”

“Thank you, Narcissa” they all smiled and gathered in the center of the room, ready to go. A loud pop was all was left in Hermione’s living room.

They apparated on top of a hill with the feeling that they had left the inhabited world behind. Narcissa’s sedative seemed to help, since Amelia showed no sign of exhaustion. They checked the map and started walking towards the place indicated in it. After about half an hour they spotted Kaleipus waiting for them, a huge basket next to him.

Hermione looked at Amelia to check her reaction and chuckled when she noticed that she was truly surprised. She told her about the first time that she saw a centaur and that seemed to calmed her a bit.

“Welcome to Miskatonic. I have gathered some supplies for the journey” he pointed to the huge basket.

“That is very considerate, thank you very much” Hermione said.

“Amelia, this is Kaleipus” Amelia came closer and shook his hand. He smiled at her and she returned the smile. Hermione sighed at the realization that this was going along better that she thought.

Soon they were already surrounded by enormous trees. Harry, Kaleipus and his huge basket were leading the group, behind them Narcissa, Amelia and Hermione were following their trail.

“So tell me Amelia, how do you like the idea of being a witch?” Narcissa asked and Hermione noticed that she appeared to be casual, but she was sure that the question had other intentions. Amelia didn’t notice that all of them were waiting for her reply.

“I told Hermione that I had always felt something different. And now I’m just curious to know what does this mean. I know that my case is unusual and I would like to know why. Of course, this explains a lot about my family!” she laughed and made the others laugh too.

“How did your family react to the news?” Narcissa asked and made a sign to Hermione, who was about to intervene. Amelia looked down and said that she lived alone. Her father had died when she was a teenager and she never met her mother, because she died during childbirth. Neither of her parents had any siblings, so she didn’t have any other relatives alive. She finished with a sigh.

“I’m so sorry to hear that” Narcissa said to her with a calming voice.

“Don’t worry, I’m used to being alone and since I never met anyone besides my dad, I can’t really miss them, right?” At this, Harry turned and came next to her. He told her about his family and how he learned to overcome growing up without paternal figures. Amelia looked much more animated and they all ended up laughing after he shared some of his anecdotes with the Dursleys.

“You made your aunt float?” Kaleipus asked and laugh so hard that a group of birds flew away.

It was starting to get dark and Harry suggested to set up the camp. Hermione took out a small package from her bag, put it in the center of a clearing of the forest and use her wand to cast a short spell. In a matter of seconds there was a big tent in front of them. Amelia let out a small “wow”.

“I need to start setting up the wards. Would you help me?” Hermione asked Narcissa, who nodded. They established a perimeter and started walking around and casting different spells. Amelia looked fascinated at them and couldn´t help but feel anxious. She looked at her bag and started looking for the wand. She found the black case she used to protect it and took it out.

When she opened it, she noticed that the wand seemed a bit different. She has seen it for so many years that she could draw it with her eyes closed. That is why she noticed that some of the letters had changed and a small symbol had appeared. It was the same symbol she saw on the door to the Witch´s room. It was too dark to make anything from it so she put it away and decided to ask about it tomorrow. For now, she was enjoying way too much all of the display of magic arround her. Harry was making the fire with the help of Kaleipus, Narcissa conjured some lights that surrounded them and Hermione was a few feet away and for a second she thought she was looking at her, but she waved her wand and five different chairs appeared around the fire. She choose the one that had short legs so she could cross her legs in front of her.

As she looked around the group, she couldn’t believe how much her life had changed in only a couple of days. She closed her eyes, smiled and inmediately fall asleep.


	10. The Whisper

“So what do you know about this entity?” Harry asked Narcissa when she finished explaining about the books she found.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to decipher any relevant information.” Narcissa said with resignation. “I have tried almost every spell I know, but I am not giving up”.

“It really looks as if someone took a lot of time and effort to make it unreadable. We should try tomorrow with daylight, and that means that we will need to come up with a cover story of some sorts to explain it to Amelia” Hermione said with concern.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just be honest with her? Why don’t you try that first?” Kaleipus asked with curiosity. Lies were not usual among centaurs.

“That is one of the best courses of action, but this is a subject so delicate that we really need to be prepared. She doesn’t know about the atrocities her own ancestors committed in the past, and I’m scared that it would be too much for her” Hermione answered.

“Sometimes you have to embrace your past in order to prepare for your future” Narcissa said looking away.

They were so deep in thought that they startled when a big branch made a loud sound in the campfire. Kaleipus went to his basket and took out a dark bottle. He handed a glass of it to everyone and drink his own in one movement. They all did the same and ended up coughing.

“What in the world is this?” Narcissa asked with a hand in her chest.

“Centaur liquor, of course.” Kaleipus said with a matter-of-fact tone. “We only like pure alcohol, I thought you knew”.

Hermione had tears in her eyes, but she was thankful for the distraction.

“Tomorrow we need to start her training. I have the list of spells Stanley would like her to practice. I guess it would be the perfect opportunity to check her wand,” she said with confidence. If there was something that she liked to do was to organize the plan to follow.

As they were heading to bed, Kaleipus had a special place next to his huge basket, a sound made them turn. Harry thought it was a kind of sound, but Hermione and Narcissa said it was definitely a whisper. Kaleipus didn’t hear a thing.

They looked up and checked that the protective wards were still in place. Everything was in order and as much as they looked around, there was nothing. The tent was still closed and there were no signs that Amelia had woken up (Narcissa had insisted on setting a kind of alarm to indicate them if Amelia moved or was awake). After casting some spells without any results, they all decided to check again first thing in the morning.

Harry, Narcissa and Hermione entered the tent. The inside was really big and Hermione was glad that Stanley managed to get one of the special tents from his Department. It had five rooms at the back, each with very comfortable beds inside. On the right there was a small kitchen area with an asortment of cooking utensils and an ordinary-looking apron. In the center there was a table for ten and there were several very big and comfortable cushions around. There were two bathrooms and finally a big study area with personal desks on the left side.

Amelia was in the room to the right, deep asleep. Harry went straight to the one on the left. Narcissa and Hermione set themselves in the ones at the center and soon the only sound was the occasional snoring coming from Harry’s room.

Back in the muggle world, Cameron and Dora were outside of Amelia’s family home.

“_Alohomora_” whispered Dora and the door opened silently. As soon as they entered they felt traces of magic. After a few spells to confirm that they were alone, they sepparated in order to search for anything that could be of interest. Two hours of extensive search later they moved to the second floor, Amelia’s room was to the right and they didn’t see nor felt anything special there. Finally, they reached the attic. There was only one door with a kind of symbol. Dora replicated it magically in a piece of parchment before moving any further. The door was closed and Alohomora didn’t do the job. They tried different approaches, but nothing seemed to work. There was definitely something on the other side.

Since they had been there for hours they decided to return the next day with new ideas for the locked door. They were leaving when a strange sound made them turn abruptly. Dora asked Cameron if she understood the word pronounced, but he said that he had only listened a sound. Dora frowned at this and went to check. She returned with no luck and decided to include this event in her report for Stanley.

Amelia woke up and found herself in a very comfortable bed. She looked around the room and was very confused. The tent she has seen earlier was big, but surely not big enough for this kind of room. Did they apparate again? She went outside and gazed open-mouthed. The place was huge! She saw Harry in the kitchen and she felt a delicious smell coming from there.

“Good Morning, Amelia. Did you sleep well?” He asked turning to face her. He was wearing the apron and Amelia chuckled.

“Yes, thank you. So… were are we?” she asked looking around.

“Inside the tent”. He smiled at her look of surprise and told her about magical tents. “I remember well the first time I entered one, I couldn’t believe my eyes!” He said with a tone of melancholy. “And for your information, this happens to be a magical apron. You put it on and it helps you cook whatever you have on your mind. It’s really something!” Harry told her.

Hermione joined them and the voices of Kaleipus and Narcissa came from outside. Soon they were all in high spirits having breakfast around what was left of the campfire. They didn’t take long to be on track again. Harry and Kaleipus with his big basket leading the group once more.

“What are wards?” Amelia asked. Narcissa was first to answer. “Think of them as protective barriers. This way we can travel without disturbing muggle life around us. If a muggle comes close to our group, he will probably feel the urgency to turn around and go somewhere else.”

“Amelia, would you like to practice some magic?” Hermione asked her, and Amelia gave her a huge smile. She had the wand in her hand in a matter of seconds. Hermione looked at Narcissa and she silently made a sign to Harry and Kaleipus. They weren’t looking, but they were paying close attention.

“By the way… do you know anything about this?” Amelia asked Hermione, showing her the letters around the wand. Narcissa went ahead and asked if she could look at it. Amelia smiled and handed it to her.

“This is a very interesting wand, Amelia. What do _you_ know about it? It must have been in your family since forever” Narcissa said with a voice that showed only curiosity. Hermione wondered if the older witch also sensed something coming from the wand. But if she did, she was showing no sing of it.

“I’ve been listening to stories about it since I was a child. This wand is a family heirloom. I was told it belonged to one of my great, great, great (to infinity) grandmother. My father told me that she used it to perform incredible deeds. He said that he couldn’t say much, but he always ended up telling me one or two things. That she could make objects fly and that is how she managed to built part of her house. That she had used it to transform a tree into a well and things like that. Of course, I always thought he was just telling me made up stories so I could imagine them, but now I think they were true. If those stories were true… then…” she tremble and stopped talking. Narcissa took the opportunity and handed the wand to Harry, who nodded. Then she grabbed Amelia´s arms and stood in front of her.

“Look at me. Don’t ever think that you have something to do with the things other people did. You carry the name, but not the decisions. If there is any shadow covering your memories, let it stay, because it is a part of them. Don’t be afraid or embarrased for things that are out of your hand. And also, you can really trust us, you know? We are here to help you every step of the way.” She smiled at her and to everyone’s surprised, Amelia hugged her.

Harry and Hermione were looking at the wand together. He passed it from one hand to the other without any discomfort, but when Hermione took it, she shivered and handed it back to him in a quick movement. They looked at each other and then at Narcissa, who was still holding Amelia, but noticed the interaction between them. Hermione replaced her in comforting the girl, while Narcissa stepped back and talked to Harry about the wand.

Neither had experienced the feeling that Hermione described, since she certainly had a physical reaction to the wand. They looked at the letters and Narcissa copied them quickly in a loose parchment, which she stowed in one of her pockets.

“Now how about some basic spells to lift the spirits?” Harry said to Amelia, handing her the wand back with a smile.

“That would be perfect.” Amelia said at the time she dried her tears.


	11. Traveling Souls

Henry was walking through the desserted streets of and old town in Salem. He said he would look for books, but as a vampire as old as he was, he knew there was a better way to find the information they needed, and he knew exactly where to look.

He turned around the corner and went straight ahead, to where he remembered was the last known location of the latest descendant of Michael Leigh, who was the only human he knew that had fought against the entity they seemed to be dealing with. He arrived at the house he was looking for and closed his eyes, he could sense three people inside. Using his special ability he called a name almost in a whisper.

“Michael Leigh. I am summoning Michael Leigh’s blood”.

He opened his eyes and a smile spread across his lips. It’s been a while since the last time he used his powers and the feeling was incredible. He saw an old man walking slowly to the front of the house. He closed his eyes again and checked that the other two were still busy and didn’t notice any of this.

The old man stood in front of his house, looking at nothing in particular. Henry walked to the open gate and waited. “You may come in”, the old man said in a strange voice. Henry closed the distance between them. The night was cloudy and specially dark, still, he looked around when he grabbed the old man by his arm, taking him around the house.

They walked towards a shed, entered and closed the door. There was no need for light. Henry stood in front of the hypnotized old man, put his lips on his neck and slowly started drinking his blood. He didn’t need much, just the necessary amount to establish the connection between their souls.

Suddenly he felt it. It was like holding a thread in his hands. He maintained the minimun amount of blood flowing, he didn’t want to kill him. The more he pulled from this imaginary thread, the more back in time he traveled in his mind. Just a couple of decades more… and there it was. He could see Michael Leigh. He stopped the flow of blood, bit the tip of his finger until blood appeared and put it on the marks his teeth had left on the old man’s neck. With his eyes closed, he concentrated hard on the gaunt face of Michael Leigh. He could feel his soul leaving his body along with the soul of the old man. And soon enough they were frozen in time.

**Salem, 1914**

Henry opened his eyes and looked around. He was in front of a house and saw Michael Leigh running to an open door. He quickly followed him inside, and down to the basement.

At the far end of the basement a man was crouching in fear. Michael entered in a hurry, his eyes flaming and his face extremely pale. He put himself between the man on the ground and a thick disk that was slowly elevating right in the middle of the room. Something indescribable was rising from underneath it.

Henry was in shock and although he knew that this was a past event and he could suffer no harm at all, the atrocity of what he was witnessing froze him to the spot. He then saw a dark silouhette standing next to the disk with its arms raised and noticed that it was whispering names… the same names that they were investigating!

A design started to appear on the ceiling and Henry realized that it was the same that Miss Granger reported finding in Amelia’s ceiling.

Henry looked at Michael, who had what appeared to be an ivory cross on his left hand and he saw him opening his mouth, his voice sounded loud and commanding. His pale face was covered with drops of sweat and he started to pronounce words that were impossible to identify and sounded like a language so old that even Henry didn’t know.

The fantastic and terrifying words boomed on the walls. He was slowly approaching the dark silouhette, holding the cross high. The black abomination kept flowing from underneath the disk as the dark shadow continued to recite the old names with its arms raised.

Suddenly, the disk fell to one side and a big wave of darkness that was nor solid nor liquid, but a sort of gelatinous mass, started to move towards Michael. He didn’t step back, and performed a quick movement with his right hand, then threw a small crystal bottle to the black thing, where it was slowly absorved.

The abomination stopped its movement, stirred and started to retreat back to where it came from. A suffocating stench surrounded them and Henry saw with wide eyes how the thing was starting to decompose and finally shrunk. The dark shadow left out a chilling cry and started to dissapear into the darkness.

As soon as it dissapeared from view, the disk returned to its place with a deafening bang.

Henry followed the two men outside the house and looked back. Dark flames were surrounding everything and sooner than later, a great fire started to spread everywhere.

He closed his eyes and concentrated hard. When he opened them again, he was in front of the old man, who looked peaceful. Henry put both of his hands on the shoulders of the man and thanked him with trembling voice. He helped him lie down and left him to rest.

He moved quickly among the houses and had the horrible feeling that he was being watched. He looked around but the streets were deserted. When he was turning around the last corner of the town, he moved with unnatural speed to one side. What he saw made him feel sick. There was a dark silouhette looking at him from the darkness. He needed to find the ivory cross and share this information as soon as possible. He had no other choice but to use the only power he avoided at all costs, flying.

He looked up and closed his eyes. Soon he felt the air passing swiftly through his body. He didn’t like the feeling of flying, but this was an emergengy. It was vital to find that ivory cross at all costs. Stanley’s report would have to wait.

Amelia aced every spell Harry taught her, even the advanced ones, under the astonished gaze of Hermione and Narcissa.

“Perfect!” Harry congratulated her after she successfully levitated a big trunk that was blocking the way. Amelia was looking at her wand and Harry came closer.

“Anything wrong?” he asked her.

“These letters have been changing,” Amelia said with concern. “I don’t know what it means, do you?” she handed it to Harry, who took it and looked carefully at the letters, which were glowing lightly.

“My father never mentioned anything about it and I’ve been racking my brains, but nothing comes to mind,” Amelia said with frustration.

“It may be some kind of signature. We will find the answer, don’t worry.” He returned it to her.

An owl flew on top of their heads and landed on Kaleipus back, who looked at it and said that he granted permission for this time only.

Hermione took the note and the owl flew away. It was from Stanley, saying that there have been no news from Henry and that he was going to join the group as soon as he finished a task he had at hand. Cameron and Dora were going to investigate the room in Amelia’s house and he would inform the group about any new development. The situation in the region showed no sign of change, so they should still reach their destination in order to look for signs of anything strange.

Hermione handed the note to Harry, who read it and then he pass it to Narcissa, who read it too and then stowed it in her pocket.

Amelia was so interested in a beautiful and colorful bird that she didn’t notice she had left the trail. When she couldn’t feel the voices of the others, she turned and found herself surrounded by trees. She was about to call someone when an orb appeared in front of her and move towards her chest. She was so surprised that she took a step backwards and fell down a deep pit. She reached the bottom with the awful sound of a bone breaking. She let out a yell of pain and soon she heard voices above.

“I’m here! Help!” Amelia cried.

Four faces looked down and Amelia felt her body light as a feather as she was being magically lifted. Once she was with the rest of the group, she told them about the orb she saw and everyone started to look around. Hermione stayed with Amelia and as she was finishing to heal her broken leg with a spell, Amelia looked at her with gratitude. Hermione had a triumphant smile on her face. “How do you feel your leg now?”

Amelia stood up and walked. She felt nothing different and there was no trace of the pain. “It’s perfect, thank you”.

The rest of the group returned with no signs of finding anything about the orb and soon they were walking together again. Kaleipus informed them that they were almost reaching the end of the woods, where he would have to leave them. The idea of entering the mountainous region wasn’t too appealing, but they knew that this had to be done. And they were prepared for it.


	12. Not Yet

Kaleipus stopped the group when they reached a particularly beautiful clearing in the forest. He took some time to explain about the medicinal herbs that grew only in that particular part of the world and Narcissa was very interested in their properties, since they were similar to mandrakes in that they helped petrified people return to their normal state, but without all the time that mandrakes require. Kaleipus showed her the easiest way to extract the essence, and soon she had a good quantity in one of her bottles.

Harry and Hermione were examining Amelia’s wand, which was in Harry’s hands, since Hermione couldn’t touch it without feeling extremely uneasy. They had no idea why this happenned and they had already sent an owl to Mr. Ollivander to see if he had any thoughts about this and the strange symbols that appeared to glow and change, but the answer was taking too long. And they had already wasted time asking for Stanley’s approval for this message in the first place.

Amelia was reading Bathilda Bagshot’s book and she looked fascinated by the information it contained. She was murmuring some words to the grass and then smiled when a small rock lifted. Hermione noticed this and went to look closer.

“How did you do that?” she asked Amelia, who was looking with glee to the levitating rock. Suddenly, she squinted her eyes at the rock and it exploded to her surprise.

“I did it! I was thinking about it and it happened! Just like the book said,” Amelia said looking from the book to the remains of the rock and then she handed it to Hermione.

Hermione took it and read the instructions on how to harness the magic within. She remembered the differences between Amelia’s book and the one Stanley sent her, and decided to try something.

“Amelia, could you do something for me?” Hermione said to the girl.

“Of course, tell me,” she said quickly.

“There is something I want you to try. Here, put the tip of your wand on top of this book and say “Specialis Revelio”” Amelia did as instructed and the book glowed and then filled with letters and symbols. There was a lot more information than when Hermione cast the same spell before. Amelia looked in awe, but inmediately frowned and looked at her wand.

“Some of these letters and symbols are the same!” she said pointing to a strange symbol drawn on the book that was also clearly visible in Amelia’s wand. Hermione called the others and soon they were all looking between the book and the wand.

Narcissa and Hermione exchanged a curious look. Hermione said that she needed to check something and Harry and Narcissa stayed with Amelia looking at the rest of the letters.

Once she was a little apart from the others, Hermione took out her book about Ancient Runes and as she was opening it, she gave a grateful look to Kaleipus, who was near the group taking out the food for tonight’s dinner from his huge basket. Thanks to his supplies, there have been no need to look for food in nearby towns, making them save valuable time and energy.

The symbols were not in the book, and she closed it with a sigh. There was something very strange about all of this. No one has been able to give her an answer about her physical reaction to Amelia’s wand, and that was something that she just couldn’t keep out of her mind. She suddenly wondered if she would be able to cast any spell with that particular wand. The thought of something dark coming from it made her shiver.

The sun was starting to set and that was the indication to set up camp again. This time Harry asked Amelia to start the fire, and she couldn’t be happier about it. When they had all of the necessary wood ready to be lit, Amelia did something that took everyone by surprise. Instead of using her wand to cast a fire, she just held it tight, looked at the symbols and then at the wood pile. She concentrated hard and in seconds fire was bursting.

“Did she just performed wandless magic?” Narcissa asked Hermione with a shaky voice. Hermione was speechless and she looked at Harry, who was as shocked as the rest, but recovered fast enough to talk again.

“Amelia, that was really good. Could you tell me how you did it?” Harry asked with an innocent tone of voice. Amelia was so satisfied with herself that didn’t notice the reaction of the rest of the group. Kaleipus was looking between Amelia and the rest with a look of curiosity.

“I did it the same way as before. I concentrated hard on my inner magic,” Amelia said with a smile, feeling proud.

“Interesting” was all that Harry could say and he cast some chairs for them to sit around the fire. Kaleipus asked Hermione for help with something. Once she was at his side she noticed that he seemed as serious as the first time she met him.

“I take it that wandless magic is not something common around your people?” He asked Hermione once they were out of earshot.

“Yes, it’s extremely difficult to master that kind of magic. The idea of someone as untrained as Amelia performing it successfully is a little concerning. This could mean so many things.” she said with frustration and bit her lip.

“The stars are showing some disturbing signs. I fear for what may happen, my friend. For now, I guess there is nothing else to do but to finish this mission and find some answers. I wish I could go with you all the way,” he said with a sad voice, still looking at the sky.

“You have been such good company! We really appreciate all your help. I hope we can get answers soon, I can’t stand to feel so ignorant!” Hermione said with honesty.

They reunited with the rest with low spirits, but then Kaleipus took out his centaur alcohol, and they completely forgot that Amelia hadn’t tried it. After only one drink she was out and Narcissa took her to bed, where she left her comfortably sleeping. Before returning to the group something caught her eye. Amelia’s wand was slightly glowing and the letters showed some slight changes.

She went to tell the others and as soon as she was outside the tent, darkness covered them. They reunited with quick movements and “Lumos” could be heard from three voices.

They heard whispers coming closer, trespassing the wards. Fear embraced them and they looked with horror how ten silouhettes started to slowly glide towards them.

“Stupefy!” Harry yelled, but the spell went right through the shadows and they showed no sign of being affected at all.

“Expecto Patronum!” Hermione’s otter dissappear when it reached the shadows. “What can we do!” she said without being able to conceal the fear in her voice.

“I have an idea” Narcissa said and went inside the tent and towards Amelia’s room. She was still asleep, the wand was still glowing slightly. Narcissa took it with decision and went outside again.

“Try this,” she handed the wand to Hermione, who pulled her hands back in shock.

“I can’t touch it!” she said to Narcissa, who started to cast spells with the wand, but with no use.

The shadows continued their slow movement. They were closer by the second and Harry’s spells were not working. Kaleipus was throwing arrows, but they only passed through.

“You have to try it, Hermione. I have a feeling that it may work. Please!” Narcissa cried with dispair looking at the approaching shadows.

Hermione closed her eyes and nodded. She took the wand and her body started to shake, but she decided to at least try.

“Protego!” she yelled. A blinding light surrounded them and the shadows stopped their movement. One, two.. three seconds later they started glide horribly slow once again and they could see that the shield Hermione cast was fading a little.

“I can’t hold it anymore!” Hermione screamed, grabbing the wand with both hands. She started to feel the wand getting hotter and hotter and her hands seemed to be weaker by the second. Her whole body seemed to be loosing energy.

Harry looked at Hermione’s pale face and started to cast really advanced spells, Narcissa tried some of her own, but they were doing no damage at all.

“NOT YET!” a woman’s voice echoed all around them with such clarity that all of them started to look around.

The shadows started to retreat, slowly, into the darkness. Harry, Hermione, Narcissa and Kaleipus were all sweating and very agitated and as soon as they lowered their wands, Hermione had already taken out her own, an alarm sound made them all jump, wands in their shaking hands. Narcissa wave her hand and told them that Amelia must be awake. They looked towards the tent and there she was, walking outside and rubbing her eyes.

“What happened? Are you OK?” she asked around when she noticed that all of them had their wands and were looking shaken.

“A group of dementors passed by,” lied Narcissa before anyone else could answer. “We had to make sure that the wards are working”.

“Dementors?” Amelia asked. And Hermione couldn’t help but feel admiration for Narcissa’s perfect shift in topic and felt more at ease once she started to explain the girl all about Azkaban and its dreadful guards.

She looked Amelia in the eye, the purple covering almost all of the iris now. She felt drained, and before she could do or say anything else she was lying fainted on the ground. 


	13. A Short Visit

Hermione woke up feeling dizzy. She was on her bed inside the tent and could hear voices outside. When she got to the entrance of the tent she stopped before joining the others. She felt so tired that when she looked at her hand and tried to open it and close it, it took her a while. Her legs felt heavy but weak at the same time. But what disturbed her the most was what she was feeling inside. There was something missing, it felt as if suddenly she was an empty vessel.

“´Mione! You Ok?” Harry’s voice took her out of her musings.

“Yes, I just feel a little bit tired.” She said trying to mask her general discomfort with a smile. Narcissa was looking intently at her as if she was trying to read her mind and made her think about Legilimency, but Narcissa wouldn’t do that. She focused her eyes on Kaleipus and Amelia, and the set of Wizard’s Chess between them. “That looks like something Ron would send,” she said feeling more animated at the mention of her old friend.

“You must be a witch!” Harry said widening his eyes and laughing at the end. He stood up and took something from the table. It was a letter from Ron saying how much he would like to be there. His wife had some problems after the birth of his first son and he had to take care of them. Of course, Mrs. Weasley was helping a lot, which made Hermione smile. She knew that she would have never been the wife Ron wanted. Mrs. Weasley was very comprehensive when they ended their relationship and continued to invite her and her parents to family reunions. Ron sent the Wizard’s Chess as a form of distraction, knowing perfectly well how stressful it can be to be in the open with a mission in mind, and as she looked around, she could see that it was a very intelligent move. “Surprising as ever,” she thought to herself with a chuckle.

He would always be sorry for the way he had left them during their journey, but was glad that at the end this had work out for the best. Hermione sighed when she remembered that time. Carrying the locket with the Horcrux was one of the worst things she had ever experienced, others would say that Bellatrix’s torture was worse, but that was physical pain, and as horrible as that was, the feeling of dark magic so deep and evil running along with your own magic was a feeling difficult to forget. Ron’s reaction was unfortunate, but not incomprehensible. Harry, being a Horcrux himself, had the worst part. She would always admire how he endured all that pain and suffering.

What she was feeling right now was sort of similar, but as she was trying to make connections, she noticed a hand on her shoulder.

“Are you sure you are OK? You look a bit… off,” Harry said with concern in a low voice.

“Yes, just tired. We need to discuss what happened as soon as possible,” she said in the same low voice. Harry nodded and walked with her to join the others.

She sat next to Narcissa. “Are you OK?” Narcissa whispered to her once the others were talking.

“I think so. I feel something strange though… I’m tired, but I don’t know. Maybe it was just too stressful”. Narcissa looked at her for a minute before taking out a small bottle from her bag and handed it to her.

“This is a potion I brew. It is supposed to help regain energy, but I haven’t needed it so far so I haven’t tested it. That doesn’t mean it won’t work,” she added in response to Hermione’s sceptical look.

“You are really interested in Potions!” Hermione said with admiration and Narcissa blushed a little and nodded with a shy smile. Hermione drank the content in one movement. She inmediatly felt better. And then she felt so much better, that she knew she needed to do something. She stood up and started to walk back and forth, feeling so much energy that she would have continued walking until the end of the journey at that very moment. When she started to say that they should start preparing for the mountains and before she conjured climbing equipment Narcissa took her to one side, laughing.

“Merlin’s beard! I think that potion needs improvement,” her laugh was contagious and soon they were all laughing at the over energetic Hermione Granger, who just stood there unable to stay put. The effect lasted for about 15 minutes and after that Hermione sit and let out a long sigh, fanning her face.

“That was something remarkable. Do you think you could share the recipe with me? I would love to work with that potion,” Kaleipus said looking very interested. Narcissa inmediately started to talk with him about the ingredientes, and offered to give him a copy with the hope that he could share his experiences.

They talked about potions and magic with Amelia, who had infinite questions, as expected. Kaleipus was also interested and often shared his knowledge with the group. When Amelia started to nod off and decided to go to bed, they waited for a little while. Once they were sure she was asleep they cast the usual spells to detect her movements, with a horrible feeling of déjà vu. Looking around and feeling nervous, they started talking about what had just happened, but didn’t last long, because Hermione’s head hit the table with a loud sound and they decided that it would be too much for her to continue tonight. They will find the time tomorrow.

Cameron and Dora were sitting on the floor in front of the door they have been trying to unlock for so many hours. They were feeling frustrated by the minute, but couldn’t stop. They have tried all of the spells that could help them, and nothing seemed to contribute to opening the door. They have already sent an owl to Stanley informing about this, but hadn’t received any news about him or the mission.

Suddenly, an orb appeared right in front of the door. Whispers were coming from it, names… the same thirteen names mentioned in the meeting. The orb dissapeared as soon as it appeared, leaving both of them confused and scared. Dora stood up and went to the stairs. She couldn’t find them. They were trapped in the hallway. The solid wall in front of her and the floor without any sign of a stairs scared her to death. She tried some spells, but they bounced.

“Cameron!” she yelled. No sound came. He was just there a moment ago! She went to the door and found herself alone. There was no sign of Cameron, no sound came from anywhere and darkness started to surround her.

“No!” she cried and lost consciousness.

The sun was starting to rise and Amelia, Kaleipus, Hermione, Narcissa and Harry were all walking towards the mountains. The sound of an apparition made them look around and they spotted Stanley coming to meet them.

“Hello there! I’m glad I could find you OK” he said as he joined the group.“I can’t stay long, but we need to discuss some things.” He said looking around them.

“Amelia, I think we haven’t meet formally, my name is Stanley. How do you do?” he offered his hand to her.

“Nice to meet you. I’m really happy to be part of this expedition, I’ve learned a lot!” she said smiling.

“I’m glad to hear that. I brought you something you may find interesting.” He said as he handed her a book. She took it and read the title, “_Magical Theory, by Adalbert Waffling_”, with a smile on her face.

“_All you will ever need to know about what makes spells work_,” Hermione said in a low voice and everyone looked at her. “That was the advert at Flourish and Blotts when I got it,” she said blushing.

They laughed and continued walking. Stanley was talking to Harry and Narcissa, Amelia was reading and walking slowly behind them and Hermione and Kaleipus were closing the group.

“How are you feeling?” Kaleipus asked looking at Hermione.

“I’m fine. I do feel something different, but can’t really understand what it is.” She said looking ahead and frowning.

Stanley walked towards them and suggested a small break in order to have a quick snack, since he would have to leave soon.

“This was a very short visit, Stanley. Are you sure you can’t stay longer?” Harry asked as he started to share out the butterbeers Stanley brought.

“I would love to, this looks like a very nice distraction,” he said looking around the beautiful scenery in front of them. The woods around them with its big trees and colorful leaves, and the impressive mountains that awaited them. He looked at Amelia sitting and reading the book a few meters away and said to the group in a low voice.

“We need to discuss something serious before I leave. Kaleipus, would you do us a favor?” He asked the centaur, who inmediately nodded. “We need you to distract Amelia for a bit, so we can discuss a few things.”

“I understand. I have the perfect distraction for her,” he said smirking.

Kaleipus went to where Amelia was sitting and asked her if she wanted to accompany him a little into the forest to collect some plants and herbs, and she accepted gladly.

Once they were out of sight, Stanley commented that he hadn’t had any news from Henry, Cameron and Dora. The owls he sent returned with their messages untouched. He sent aurors to check Amelia’s house and they found nothing strange inside. Nor did they find Cameron or Dora. Henry was last seen near Salem, but then he goes off track. Also, he had new information about their mission. The region they were about to go was changing extremely fast and that is what called the attention in the first place. Now, of course, the matter is a little more serious. If this change is connected to the Prinn family, they may be facing a danger beyond any of their abilities. They started to talk about the recent events with the orbs, the shadows and the wand. Stanley was very interested in the symbols and was extremely happy when Narcissa took out a parchment with what she saw appearing in the wand the other day.

“This is very helpful, thank you Mrs. Malfoy,” Stanley said appreciatively.

“Please, Stanley. I believe you more than anyone would prefer to call me Narcissa, so I encourage you to do so,” she said with a resignated voice, but smiled with some satisfaction at the end.

“Very well. Thanks to Narcissa’s contribution we may be closer to get to the bottom of this. I will take this and present all of the information you have shared with me to my superiors. I will inform you of any new discovery as soon as possible.” He stored the parchment and some notes he took during their conversation inside of his robes and handed them a small vial with what looked like molten gold inside.

“Felix Felicis!” Both Harry and Hermione said in unison and looked at each other with a wide smile.

“Yes, a small present from our Department. I am confident that you are more than capable to face any danger coming your way, but if things get unexpectedly bad, you could use a little help”. With a general thanks he said good-bye and told them to bid Amelia and Kaleipus his farewell.

A quick turn later he was out of sight. They looked at each other and at the small vial of liquid luck in their hands, all hoping that they would never had to face something so bad that it will require that last resort.


	14. The Invocation

“Well, this is it,” Kaleipus said when they reached the end of the forest and all they could see now was a deserted path leading to the mountains.

“You really have to go?” Amelia asked him with a sad face. Kaleipus looked at her and smiled.

“I’d love to go with you, but the mountains are not friendly with us centaurs,” he said kicking the floor with his front hooves.

“However, I would like to give you a farewell present,” he continued and grabbed his basket, which Amelia noticed wasn’t as big as it was at the beginning of the journey and assumed it must have some magical element too.

“Just like Christmas!” Amelia said clapping her hands when she saw Kaleipus taking out some tightly wrapped packages.

“Actually, _All Hallow’s Eve_ is in just a couple of days, so you can think of this as a present. You may not know it, but we centaurs celebrate it with a huge gathering for family and friends, and we exchange gifts,” he said smiling and looking at her fondly. He came to care a lot for Amelia. She was so eager to learn new things and she certainly had talent and good memory. They had a lot of fun collecting herbs and talking about the properties of some plants. But still, there was something odd about her, he could feel something troubling in her soul and couldn’t help but feel sad for what the future may hold for her, even the stars have been mistakenly read before and it could happen again. He shook his head and focused again.

“OK, first Harry,” he said taking out a small package and handed it to him. Harry opened it and looked surprised. “That is a special whistle. Blow it when you need help and every centaur and beast near you will come to your aid” Harry beamed and shook his hand expressing his gratitude.

“Dear Narcissa, please accept this as a token of admiration and future friendship. I want to lend you something that has been in our tribe for centuries, and it may come in handy during a difficult time. I will be waiting for you to return it after your journey, so you can meet the rest of my family and my grandfather, who can tell you everything there is to know about centaur potion making.” He gave her a dark green package and when she opened it, she found a beautiful small bottle that had a solid looking cup attached by an elegant chain. “You have to prepare it before use it. Just put it next to the potions you have already prepared so it can “_learn_” the potions you need. When the time comes, you only need to think about the potion you want to take and this bottle will have it for you. We never understood how it works, it was a present from a very old family friend, who was a wizard. It’s really useful when you need something fast.” Narcissa took it with awe and expressed her infinite gratitude. She started to examine the bottle thoroughly and smiled.

“Hermione, I would like you to have this,” he came close to her and gave her a colourful box that contained a gorgeous amulet. It was transparent and she could see throught it. “It’s a way to be in touch and to help you in case you are in trouble. You just need to say my name to it and I will be able to see what you see”. Hermione took it and put it around her neck. For one horrible second she remembered putting the locket on, but this feeling was so pure and honest that she felt secure and protected. She thanked Kaleipus.

“And last, but no least. Amelia, this is for you,” Amelia looked at her present and when she opened it, she saw two beautiful bracelets. “They are centaur made, stronger than anything you can think of. You can put them on and they will help in case you fall or need help,” he said smirking.

“Kaleipus!” she hit his arm affectionately and hugged him. Their friendship was something Amelia never expected, but was extremely happy to have now.

With that, they shared a last meal with Kaleipus. It only had been a couple of days, but it felt much longer with all that happened. They wished him farewell and then saw him waving at them as they were approaching the mountains. After a couple of hours they reached the opening of a cave and had to enter it in order to continue.

“I don’t like this very much,” Hermione said to Harry once they were starting to crouch.

“It will be over before you can say Quidditch,” Harry said with a grin.

They emerged on the other side of the small cave a few moments later. The road was getting darker by the minute and not because of the time of the day, but because they were entering a zone with a rock formation on top. It would have been beautiful to look at under other circumstances.

“_Lumos_” Harry and Hermione said almost in unison. Hermione frowned when she noticed that her wand barely cast a dim light. She heard “_Lumos_” behind her and Narcissa’s wand iluminated the rest of the group.

“Where are we going?” Amelia asked while crossing with difficulty through a particularly strange rock which then Narcissa jumped gracefully.

“We are near. Think about it as chapters of a book and there are only two more chapters left” Hermione said encouragingly.

“Only you would use a book to make that comparison,” Harry said laughing as he avoided a sharp rock.

They reached a beautiful clearance, where they could see dozens of stone pillars that formed a kind of circle. They looked in awe at the huge mountain in front of them, it was magnificent and they could see the sun starting to set behind it, casting strange shadows all around.

“This looks like a good place to rest,” Harry said as he sit and rubbed his legs. They all agreed and started setting up the camp.

Dora woke up in a dark room. She rubbed her eyes but it made no difference. There were no windows or doors casting a beam of light and the only thing that had some kind of luminiscence was a small orb right on top of her. She noticed another one close by and she tried to stand up, but her legs were heavy and didn´t respond. She crawled to it and she felt something solid and warm. When she touched it, she knew it was a human being.

“Cameron?!” she said with trembling voice. A grunt was all she had for answer. She looked for her wand, but couldn’t find it. “_Accio wand!_” she tried with no success.

Where on earth were they? She hold on to Cameron’s arm and hold it tight. Suddenly, the orbs on top of them collided and dissappear, making it completely dark.

“_**GOMORY**_” the voice of something that shouldn’t be alive came from every corner. Dora shook Cameron to wake him up, with no result.

A light with a shape of a camel with a crown was visible for a few seconds. It was brighter than any light she had seen in a while. It hurt her eyes and she tried to focus on something else. Cameron´s face was covered in blood and as she tried to came closer, the light dissappear throught the ceiling at a very fast speed. She couldn’t see a thing.

“_**ZAGAN**_” the same voice called. This time the shape of a big bull did the same.

“_**SYTRY**_” was heard and a the shape of a great prince followed the others through the ceiling.

“_**ELIGOR**_” was a red men with an iron crown that did the same of the others.

“_**DURSON**_” was a raven accompanied with little demons floating around. Dora was counting more than 15 when it dissappeared.

“_**VUAL**_” was a dark cloud and “_**SCOR**_” had the shape of a white snake.

“_**ALGOR**_” surprised Dora with its shape of a fly. She looked at it flew away and being replace by another shape.

“_**SEFON**_” a man with a green face followed the others.

Everytime the voice spoke a name, Dora could feel Cameron stir a bit. She was holding tight to his arm, amazed that she hadn’t lost conciousness with all that she was witnessing.

“_**PARTAS**_” was a huge vulture and it flew away beating his big wings.

“_**GAMOR**_” was an innocent looking man.

“_**UMBRA**_” looked like a giant and it occupied a lot more space than the others when it cross through the ceiling.

“_**ANABOTH**_” was a yellow toad that jumped out of view and it was the last to appear and dissappear through the ceiling.

Dora could hear something similar to an incantantion and soon a cauldron appeared in the middle of the room. She could see a lot of things around now that her eyes were more accustomed to the light, bookshelves filled with old books and bottles similar to the ones they used for potions.

She didn’t notice that ten shadows were starting to emerge from around the cauldron, nor did she notice that Cameron was no longer at her side. When she looked at him she found her hand holding just air. She looked around looking desperately for him and then she saw the shadows.

She yelled as loud as she could, but deep down inside, she knew that no one would be able to hear her.


	15. Branded

Henry had been looking tirelessly for the ivory cross he saw on Michael Leigh’s hand. As for the small bottle with liquid, he knew that it was an elixir that should be found next to the cross, the information provided by Michael’s descendant was priceless. Now he knew that the combination of the ivory cross with the elixir were the only weapon that could force the entity back to where it came from.

He landed in front of an old church, his feet softly touching the solid floor. He had only two hours before sunrise. He entered the premises and walked around the building until he found a cross thinly drawn on the ground, next to a big tree. He looked at the drawing and touch it with his fingers. It was barely visible and he doubted that any human could have noticed it there. After all, it had been too many years of wind, sand and footsteps. But even if it was noticed before, no one else could have use it.

He looked around and once he determined that no one was looking, he bit his wrist and poured some of his blood on the drawn cross. A glowing circle appeared around it. He step hard on it and it broke in million pieces, leaving an empty aperture with an old ladder attached, which Henry ignored as he jumped down and landed smoothly in a dark and cold corridor.

The darkness didn’t affect him at all and he could clearly see every detail as any human being would do under daylight. The tunnel was covered in symbols and letters and some of them were similar to the ones they had been studying. When he reached the end of the tunnel, he found a round room and saw a small altar in the center with dozens of small stone pillars around. In the middle of it was a wooden box that looked so old that it was about to disintegrate. After studying it for a while, he carefully took it out using his supernatural speed. Inmediately after that, the stone pillars formed a sort of cage surrounding the center of the altar. Clearly no ordinary human would have been able to take this out.

When he opened the box, he found the ivory cross and an empty flask. There was a note attached to it. He took it and read it:

“_To the poor soul whose mission is to procure the elixir to defeat the darkness: the elixir should be created from scratch everytime darkness appear. This guarantees that the ingredients have all of their properties activated. Please follow the instructions very carefully_.”

There was a list of ingredients and the steps to prepare it successfully. It was a relief to see that those ingredients were easy to find, well, at least for someone like him. He decided to collect everything himself before joining the group. Once he was outside again, he wrote an urgent note to Stanley summarizing his findings and alerting the rest of the group for what he thought was about to happen, with the promise that he would join them as soon as he got the mentioned items.

He was standing still with the note in his hand and waiting for a mail owl to collect it, as Stanley instructed. Out of the blue, he heard whispers. It was as if a group of people were whispering names fast and at the same time. Still, he didn’t leave, he needed to send this note as soon as possible and an owl was becoming visible by the second.

He tried to move closer to it and noticed that he couldn’t move his legs. He looked astonished as a group of shadows was emerging right beneath him and started to get their hands around him. The owl was close now, he decided to deliver the message first and then try to escape. Once it took the note and left, Henry closed his eyes and concentrated hard on releasing his body from its captors, but as hard as he tried, he just couldn’t move.

Closing his eyes, he visualized the only thing that could save him right now, but that would take all of his energy. He evaluated his options while the shadows continued to creep. If he used this last resource, he may not have the required energy to find shelter from the deadly sun. On the other hand, if he let the darkness take him, he may be safe and perhaps it could mean to find out more about all of this. The hands were reaching his waist. He felt them pushing him down, and making a decision, he gave in to the darkness.

* * *

Stanley was in his office sitting at a table that couldn’t hold any more parchments. He had so much information gathered that it was taking a lot of time to make anything out of it. As he was finishing with one pile, an owl entered and drop a note near his hands.

“What now…” he said with concern.

As he read Henry’s note he blanched and realized that his darkest fears were becoming reality. They didn’t have enough time now. If what Henry said was true, the group was heading towards a deadly trap! He didn’t think twice and tripped with a basket on his rush to get up, he straighten his robes and dissaparated on the spot without another glance.

He apparated, in front of what looked like the entrance of a cave. Looking around, he noticed that he was alone. He sent his patronus as a message, but it stopped when it reached the cave.

“This doesn’t look good.” He said frowning.

* * *

Hermione was looking at the sky, thinking about what Kaleipus has said.

“Would you hold this for a sec?” Amelia’s voice reached her and she extended her hand absentmindedly. When she felt a strong shake she look at her hand. Amelia’s wand was slightly glowing. What if the problem was her wand? She then looked at the wand, shrugged and said to herself “I could at least try”.

“_Lumos_!” a bright light iluminated the clearance and she inmediately felt two things. One, how the rest of her magic seemed to pour into the wand, and second, a painful stung on the back of her neck. Amelia looked at her as she retrieve her wand and the glowing stopped when the girl took it. Hermione could clearly see how her eyes were turning completely purple, but before that happened, Amelia shook her head and frown.

“Ugh, what a terrible headache!” she said pinching the bridge of her nose.

Narcissa came closer to ask something and came to a halt when she saw the look on Hermione’s face. She offered a small potion to Amelia, who inmediately felt better.

“Amelia, dear, would you tell Harry that he should start with the wards? Maybe he can show you a thing or two,” she said winking at her. Amelia looked at both of them and Hermione noticed that her eyes were still mostly blue, but purple was definitely more present now than when she first met her. Amelia smiled and nodded enthusiastically. Once she was away, Narcissa asked Hermione about what happened. She told her everything, even the strange tinge of purple in her eyes that had been changing.

“Let me see your neck,” she said and Hermione lifted her hair. Narcissa blanched when she saw a symbol deeply branded in Hermione’s neck. She hesitated for a second and her Slytherin side took charge.

“It’s nothing, but I will have to check it later. How do you feel?”

“As if a dementor was here,” she answered in a sad voice. “I need to try something”. Narcissa looked at her with concern.

Hermione took out her wand and cast a levitating spell aimed to a small rock. Nothing happened. She felt empty.

“Try mine,” Narcissa said a low voice, handing her own wand and checking that Amelia and Harry were busy.

“_Wingardum Leviosa_!” Hermione cast again, with the same result. She looked at Narcissa with wide eyes and shaky hands. “What does this mean?”. Tears started to go down her cheeks.

Narcissa opened her bag and used a clean handkerchief to clean her tears. She caressed her face and tried to calm her, saying that it may all be only temporary. They decided not to tell Harry right now, because he would be extremely worried. However, if there were no changes in a couple of hours, she would have to take her to St Mungo’s Hospital.

The stars were the only ilumination they had. Harry and Amelia came to join the other two and started setting up the camp. Since it was too dark to see a thing, Harry didn’t notice anything strange and encouraged Amelia to do the honors of using her magic to iluminate them. Before Hermione and Narcissa could say a word, Amelia’s voice came clear and decided.

“_Lumos_”

A gutural sound made them look around and they saw in horror how ten dark silhouettes began to slowly rise around them and started whispering names. The shadows were pronouncing the thirteen names they heard not so long ago. They couldn’t move and stood there, watching in horror at the terrorific scene.

Before anyone could do or say anything, Amelia fainted and was inmediately floating towards the center of the circle. The stones were surrounded by a glow.

“Amelia!” Hermione cried, but the girl didn’t respond. “Amelia! Are you OK!?” she tried again.

One by one, thirteen orbs arrived from the sky. They place themselves around them and as the voices spoke their names, they regained their original shapes. Soon they were looking at an assortment of characters, from a camel with a crown to an innocent looking man.

The figures started to sway in their spots, reciting something in an unknown language and all that Hermione, Harry and Narcissa could do was to watch.

* * *

Stanley reached the end of the cave and looked around. He was sure that it was the same place he was before. For the third time, he checked his map and found nothing there. No signs of Hermione, Harry, Narcissa or Amelia.

“_Flagrate_” he cast at the entrance and inmediately started to walk to the other side of the cave.

When he was reaching the end, he could clearly see his mark ahead. He took a turn and retreated, only to find his mark in front of him. He remained motionless and open-mouthed, looking how the mark slowly dissappeared. He was trapped.


	16. The Return

When Henry opened his eyes, he found himself floating in a dark substance. There was nothing that indicated where he was, nor could he touch anything solid. Looking around he noticed some strange shapes in his same situation and he had the feeling that only beings outside the realm of humanity would be able to look at these things. One of these shapes called his attention because it looked human and as he moved towards it, he noticed that it was Cameron.

He grabbed him and pushing his body to what felt like up, he started to rise. His head broke the surface of a pool of gelatinous dark matter, he pulled himself and Cameron out and looked around. There were countless pools like the one they just left and he could see odd rock formations, as if they were deep into the mountains, but he couldn’t see stars nor feel the fresh air.

He checked his pockets and sighed with relief when his hand found the ivory cross and the note safely stored.

They were surrounded by shadows that were paying close attention to a purple glow on a kind of painted wall, with symbols appearing and dissapearing on what looked like a perfect dark square that looked crumbled and rounded off as if exposed to storms and climate changes for millions of years.

It was now or never. His clothes were drenched with the dark substance and felt extremely heavy, so he took them off and did the same with Cameron. Then grabbed him and run as fast as he could through a dark path. Soon they were surrounded by trees and looking up he saw that it was nightfall. Was he trapped in that pool for a whole day? He checked on Cameron and noticed that he was still breathing. Weak, but alive.

Without wasting another minute, he closed his eyes and started to elevate from the ground with Cameron in his arms. In just seconds they were out of view.

“This is it,” Henry said crouched next to a dark plant after a non-stop and extremely fast search. “The last ingredient”. He put it in a bag along with the rest of the items indicated on the list. Thanks to his abilities he was able to gather everything in under an hour, and he even had time to found some clothes for him and Cameron. He knew that wizards were good with potions, but something deep inside told him that it was better to follow his instincts. So he decided to brew the elixir himself.

Henry run to the trees once again, Cameron was still unconscious. He put on some clothes and as he was dressing Cameron, he noticed a symbol branded in his neck. The fact that it was the same symbol he has been seeing for a while made him feel restless. He would have to check on that later, if there was time.

He started a small fire with some wood he found. He put a small pot on top of the fire and started to add the ingredients at a supernatural speed, but following very carefully the instructions. Some time later, a yellowish smoke indicated that it was completed and he poured it into the flask. He only hoped that it wasn’t too late.

Cameron had his eyes closed, but his mind was quite awake. It was as if part of him was still in Amelia’s house. He could hear Dora screaming and the sound of a bubbling cauldron, but he could also hear the sound of the woods and Henry’s comments. Images were crossing his mind really fast, but they were so clear that he couldn’t ignore them. He tried to move or talk, but he only managed to moan and stir a bit. Henry was inmediately next to him, calling his name. If he could only communicate with him! He needed to tell him about Dora.

Henry was looking at him carefully. He noticed how the blood was flowing in his veins and how his mind was still active. He decided to check something and gently bit Cameron’s neck where the symbol was glowing slightly. He just needed the blood connection to look at what he was seeing and decided to check the symbol at the same time. He was promptly rewarded with lots of images coming deep from Cameron’s unconscious mind.

Night had fallen, there was a group of ten people in front of a big mountain, surrounded by dozens of stone pillars. They were using magic, but he couldn’t see what they were doing. By the look of their clothes they were probably from the 16th century, Henry recognized the attire he had used around that time.

A woman was standing in the center, next to a big cauldron. He noticed that she had long purple hair… and his vampire eyes let him see that her eyes were also purple. Her wand was aiming high to the sky and she was shouting some strange words. This time, Henry recognized the old language inmediately. The woman started to add little things to the cauldron, and each time sparks erupted from it. Then, the circle opened up and they formed a long queue. They were all in line facing the cauldron and the woman. The cry of a small creature made Henry look around and he felt sick.

They were passing a baby among each other until it reached the woman, who lifted it with her free hand, said a few words and then dropped it in the cauldron, silencing the grounds. Bright red sparks covered the group for a few seconds and a foul smell surrounded them.

“Master of Time and Space, We call You! Creator of Panic, Shining Victor, Son of Chaos and the Void, Hear our Call!”

The others put their hands above their head and used their thumbs and index fingers to create a triangle in their forehead. They were reciting over and over something like a pray:

“Per Adonai Elohim, Adonai Jehova

Adonai Sabaoth, Metraton Ou Agla Methon,

Verbum Pythonicum, Mysterium Salamandrae

Cenventus Sylvorum, Antra Gnomorum

Demonia Coeli God, Almonsin Gibor

Jehoshua Evam Zariathnatmik, Veni, Veni, Veni!”

A deep and unnatural voice came from the string of light that was flowing from the woman’s wand.

“_**Who dares disturb my eternal rest? Speak now**_”

“Hear me, King of Infinite Space! My name is Abigail Prinn, your faithful servant. We are here to open the gate and receive your gifts of Knowledge and Power, Time and Space! The sacrifice was made and we are here to do your bidding”

“_**What you desire requests a higher sacrifice**_”

Henry saw the woman recoil for a second, but she stood still and nodded.

A horrible sound was heard from the stone pillars and a glow surrounded Abigail. She had her eyes closed and then the sound stopped. She opened her eyes and Henry saw darkness in them. She pointed her wand to the group in front of her and they remained still. Then she made them float one by one into the cauldron, were they were slowly engulfed.

“Every member of my family is part of this potion. I am the only Prinn alive now. Tell me what else to do!”

She closed her eyes again and Henry had the impression that the entity was comunicating directly to her. When she opened them again, there was something else in her eyes. Fear?

She pointed her wand to herself, and started to recite an incantation. Blood was coming out from her nose, mouth, eyes and ears and it looked as if the wand was absorbing it. Then, as soon as this started, it ended. It was dark again, nothing was glowing and the only light came from the stars and the lit wood underneath the cauldron. Henry’s eyes could see every detail. Like how Abigail stood there looking at her now glowing wand and how she dipped it in the cauldron. When she took it out, letters and symbols were appearing in it.

“Now, we just need to wait for a few generations” she said to her wand. She made a complicated movement and the cauldron exploited in pieces that were absorved by the stone pillars. With that she left.

Henry found himself looking at Cameron’s suffering face. Before the vision ended, he could hear Dora’s screams coming from somewere. Where was she? He tried to found her in Cameron’s memories, but he couldn’t see anything else.

He frowned and decided to create a small shelter for him. He needed to join the group as fast as he could now. Once Cameron was safe he was up in the air one more time and as he was approaching what he knew was the group’s location, he encountered a pulsing wave of magic and felt his body falling a few inches. Then more by the second, until he crashed unceremoniously to the ground.

He sensed the magic around and looking up he could see wave after wave of it. Time was running out. He dashed forward with all his might until he hit hard and soundly on an invisible barrier.

Hermione, Harry and Narcissa looked to where the strange sound of a vampire hitting a barrier came from and they saw Henry punching the air with his fists a few meters away. Then he stopped and looked from the group to Amelia floating. He felt Narcissa looking intently at him, trying to communicate something. He opened his mind to her and concentrated hard on everything he saw and found, directing detailed images of what he has discovered through Cameron.

Narcissa gasped and turned her eyes to Amelia. Both Harry and Hermione looked at her.

Suddenly, the thirteen orbs were attracted to Amelia as if it was a magnetic field. Every time one of them dissappeared into her body, the shadows pronounced its name.

When the last name was pronounced (_Anaboth_) Amelia opened her eyes. This time they were completely purple.

The dark silhouettes extended their arms to their sides, palms up. A dark stream of shadow started to flow from their hands, forming a closed circle with Amelia floating in the center.

“Amelia!” Hermione yelled again. Amelia looked at her and Hermione was shocked, she looked so different. Then she extended her arms and smiled with triumph looking at her body.

“The time has come for me to return and finish what was started centuries ago. I have been waiting for the right soul to appear…” at this she looked at Hermione, whose eyes widened.

“You should have listened to your body, young lady” Amelia’s mouth turned into a smirk.

Hermione looked horrified.

“Yes…” she continued. “I felt your reaction to my magic through my wand. We have been connected from the beginning, see?” she took out her wand, touched the letters and they glowed. At this, Hermione’s body made an unvoluntary movement.

“Now, if you don’t mind…” she said to the dark silhouettes, who raised their hands and started to send shadows to the sky. All of the streams reunited above, forming a kind of path that lost into space.

Amelia looked at this and sighed loudly, “It has begun, and you are all invited”.


	17. The Servant

“Amelia, why…” Hermione’s voice was low and shaken.

“That is not Amelia, that is Abigail Prinn!” Narcissa’s voice came loud and clear. Amelia looked at her and laugh. It was a cold laugh, completely different to what they had heard so far from her. She bowed in the air and then looked from Narcissa and the utterly shocked Harry and Hermione, to Henry, who was clenching his fists. He started to hit the barrier over and over again, with all the strength he could master, but there wasn’t any difference.

“Finally! I was starting to feel extremely dissapointed. I underestimated the power of vampires" she said looking at Henry with something close to admiration. “Do not waste your time, even if you have all the time in the world. You will not be able to come closer, just like your other friend, who is having the time of his life I pressume!”, she laughed at Henry. But then she stopped and turned her gaze to the entrance of the cave, where a pale Stanley was approaching, helding his wand high and with his robes drenched in blood.

“It took you long enough to discover the way through, but I admire your persistence” Abigail said slowly.

The shadows made a deep sound and Amelia’s body stiffened for a second. She closed her eyes and winced.

“_Soon_…”

“_Stupefy_!” a red beam came from Stanley’s wand. The spell bounced off as Amelia opened her eyes. She waved her hand towards Stanley and he stood where he was, unable to move.

“You know… I thought I would have more fight from modern wizards. But this is all you have?” She looked from him to Hermione, Harry and Narcissa.”

“Is Amelia still alive?” Harry asked directly to her.

“You could say that she is around, but not for long. Why? Did you become fond of her?” her smirk was horrible.

“We care about her, she’s our friend” he answered with honesty.

“I do not care for earthly feelings such as friendship and love. My curse was brought to fruition and I have returned from the darkness. Now I am about to conquer time and space!” she looked at the sky.

“You did have a good plan, if I can say so” Narcissa’s comment made the rest looked at her with surprise. “It is quite clever to use one own’s blood for an incantation like this.”

Abigail looked surprised, but pleased. “I can see you have an ambitious soul. Not that it would make any difference to praise me”. Narcissa raised an eyebrow and huffed.

“That was not my intention” she said. "I am very interested in what you have done, since you seem to have survived time. I know that you don't have to answer, but how on earth did you manage to return?"

Abigail examined Narcissa and considered the answer for a moment. Her pride won.

"My master gave me the power to use my wand as a sort of container for my soul. It would require a great sacrifice to do it..." she suddenly stopped talking.

"I think I know what you mean, I saw what you did... what I don't understand is how you managed to return in another body" Narcissa continued while the others were paying close attention to this conversation.

"That is thanks to my master... his infinite power allowed this to happen. My wand would be absorving energy through time... at the end it was notorious, the amount of people coming everyday to this girl's store was absurd. This would have go on for who knows how long. Luckily, Miss Granger was sent early." She looked at Hermione, who couldn't hide her surprise and fear. "When she touched my blood descendant the bound was initiated. Then all I needed was for her to touch my wand and as soon as she did, it started to absorve her magic. And now here we are..." She extended her arms and looked around.

A tremor suddenly made them all fall to the ground and Abigail’s body descended several inches. Henry had broke through the barrier surrounded by dark smoke and this seemed to have interfere with what was happening.

The shadows kept sending the apparently endless flow of darkness to space, not reacting at all to what was happening around them.

They all used their wands to try to restrain Abigail since she was distracted, but the spells didn’t even touch her.

Abigail’s feet touch the ground and she stood still, looking deadly at them. Her face was nothing to what they knew of Amelia.

“Now, since you cannot wait patiently…” holding her wand with her thumbs and opening her palms to form a triangle, she sent them a pulsing wave of magic that left them petrified. Then she did the same to where Henry opened the barrier, and it was inmediately closed.

She looked at them and squinted her eyes. “Where is your vampire friend? He owes me an explanation... but that can wait. I need to continue, you can look if you want”. She turned and left them there, petrified. Then she closed her eyes and lifted from the ground once again. The silhouettes made a horrible sound as she opened her arms.

“First step is done. Now, the stars of the show” she made a strange movement with her wand and the silhouettes stopped and then started directing their beams of shadows to her.

She screamed with agony for a second and stopped, gasping. Then, she started what sounded like an incantation:

“_**Y'AI'NG'NGAH,**_

_ **YOG-SOTHOTH** _

_ **H'EE-L'GEB** _

_ **F'AI THRODOG** _

_**UAAAH**_”

The stone pillars around them vibrated, pieces and sparks came from within and soon enough, a cauldron started to form in front of Abigail. Next, she said similar words with another wand movement and Cameron appeared next to Dora. They seemed to be unconscious.

Dora slowly opened her eyes and, rubbing the back of her neck, she looked from Abigail to the shadows and then to Cameron. She was horrified and inmediately launched herself to him, but he didn’t respond.

“Thank you for joining us, even for a visit as short as this one,” Abigail said looking at them with a terrible expression on her face.

Dora aimed her wand to her, but one movement from Abigail left her petrified to the spot. She and Cameron were motionless. She talked to Cameron, but could not move an inch. He was out of reach.

And once again, all that Harry, Hermione and Narcissa could do was to watch.

“_Hear me!_

_ **King of Infinite Space!** _

_ **Planetmover!** _

_ **Umr At-Tawil!** _

_ **Iak-Sathath!** _

_ **YOG-SOTHOTH NAFL'FTHAGN!!!** _

_Your servant call upon you!_”

Another tremor made them tremble and the stone pillars started to glow. The cauldron started to bubble and Abigail was repeating the same words over and over again, really fast.

She looked at Dora and Cameron and then at Hermione. She pointed her wand to the first two and they stood up as if in a trance. Dora was looking in horror how her body moved by itself.

Then, a glow came from their necks and they all saw a symbol shining there. Narcissa looked at Hermione without moving her head. It was almost identical to the symbol she had branded on her neck.

Another movement from Abigail’s wand and Cameron started to lift from the ground. He was floating with his eyes closed and Abigail came close to him, inspected the symbol on his neck and murmured "so this is how he knew... interesting". Then she returned to her spot and continued to point her wand to Cameron. When he was being attracted to the cauldron, Dora screamed with all her might and the scream resonated around them.

“CAMERON! WAKE UP! CAMERON!”

But no other sound came. Henry was looking from behind a stone pillar and closed his eyes, he could feel how scared Cameron was, and how he was unable to wake up. Then, the horrible sound of a body being engulfed in a potion came to him.

“CAMERON, NO!” “PLEASE, STOP!”

But it was too late. Cameron’s body was already inside the cauldron. Abigail’s body glowed.

Harry tried to set free, but Abigail’s magic was strong and they were completely petrified. He was crying with anger and impotence and he noticed that the others were in the same state.

Dora’s screams were muted when she too was engulfed by the cauldron. Abigail’s body glowed again, this time a little harder.

“And now, the last element for the final transformation. The most important human alive right now” she said looking at Hermione.

Hermione started to slowly walk towards the cauldron, the symbol glowing in her neck. Narcissa was helplessly yelling at her and Harry was in shock, he was thinking about anything that could help him right now, but nothing came to mind. The whistle was in his pocket, but he was unable to move his hands… this couldn’t be happening.

Hermione was getting closer, and she was looking wide-eyed to Abigail, whose purple eyes were cold and without any trace of the girl she knew not so long ago.

Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she continued to walk towards the cauldron, unable to stop or to walk away.

Henry was hiding behind one of the stone pillars. He had the elixir and the ivory cross in his hands and he knew that he needed to wait, but this wasn’t looking good.

“_Time to close your eyes_,” Abigail said while opening a small bottle she conjured. Hermione tried hard to stay with her eyes open, but she was feeling weaker by the second. And her neck was hurting badly.

“_Close your eyes_.” Abigail repeated, but Hermione resisted.

“I feel it coming on. You have got nowhere to run and there is no way you will make it out alive, so don’t try to fight it, just close your eyes.” Once Hermione’s eyes were closed, Abigail took a sip of the small bottle and her body stirred a bit, then she forced Hermione to take some too. The glow coming from Abigail’s body now was blinding.

“Go on and say your last words.” Abigail’s voice was full of excitement as she waved her hand to permit Hermione speak

“**_Kaleipus_**!” Hermione’s voice broke the silence and Abigail looked at her. Kaleipus face appeared in her amulet and his expression was sombre, but resolute. His voice came clear and loud enough to be heard by everyone:

“**_CAPTURE_**”

Abigail was going to say something when her eyes widened with surprise. The bracelets on her wrists glowed bright red and were attracted together with a loud “_clank_!”. She fell to the ground, frantically trying to free her arms. The red glow spread out from her wrists to the rest of her body and soon she was wrapped in it, unconsious.

Narcissa was the first to react once she noticed they could move again. She reached Hermione and pushed her and Harry towards Stanley. Henry was watching everything from his hiding place. Narcissa looked at the others and, with a general understanding, they held hands with the intention of apparating away. But in spite of their attempts, nothing happened.

Hermione turned and walked very fast to were Amelia was as if something inside her was making that decision. She looked at her, surrounded by the red glow and extended an arm to touch her. As soon as her hand touched her skin, everything went black.

“Hermione!” it was all she could hear from her friends and then silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used some of the lyrics of "Close your Eyes", by Kim Petras. The album "Turn off the Light" was a great inspiration for this part of the story.


	18. Now and Then

No light, no weight, no gravity. She noticed Amelia’s arm under her hand, her skin was warm and she hold it harder. Where were they? She felt as if traveling through a dark tunnel at very fast speed, it was similar to the feeling of apparition, but stronger. And then light appeared everywhere. They were lying on the sand in a beautiful beach, the sun was shining over them.

There were no sign of the others, the silhouettes or anything else.

“Amelia, are you OK?” Hermione asked with a soft voice as soon as she felt safe, really hoping to see Amelia and not Abigail.

The girl moaned and slowly opened her eyes. Purple eyes that looked around in surprise.

“What!? What happened?” Amelia asked looking around

“Amelia?” Hermione asked cautiously

“Yes… wha..” her question was interrupted by a surprise hug. Hermione launched herself towards the girl.

“Amelia! How are you? Are you OK?” she said looking at her with concern.

“Yes, I think. I feel strange though…” she stood up and staggered a little. “I feel as if my body is half numb, where are we?” she said looking around at the gorgeous and empty beach.

The air was cool and they could hear the squawks of the seagulls and the sound of the waves breaking upon the shore.

“How did we get here?” Hermione said more to herself than to the girl as she stood up too. “What is the last thing you remember?”

Amelia frowned and tried to remember.

“We were about to set camp and I used my wand… I think” she looked at her hands, rubbed her wrists around the bracelets that weren’t glowing anymore. Then, she noticed her wand in her pocket but Hermione stopped her before she could take it.

“Please, don’t touch your wand yet. I have a feeling about it. I could keep it safe for you” Hermione said pleading. Amelia nodded and let Hermione took her wand and put it in one of her pockets. The feeling of Abigail’s wand in her hand was horrible, now that she knew what it was, she wasn’t so fond of it. And felt sick after remembering about Cameron and Dora. She rubbed her neck and frowned as she tried to identify the pain.

“What happened to you?” Amelia asked as she saw Hermione grabbed her hair and lifted it. There was a symbol branded in her neck and it was slightly glowing. Amelia touched it with the tip of her finger and immediately noticed a strong pull in the center of her body. She quickly grabbed Hermione’s arm and they dissappeared.

Darkness. Silence. No gravity. The dark tunnel. And light again. This time they had appeared next to an enormous tree in the middle of a forest that looked very similar to the one they had left not so long ago. They looked at each other with surprise.

Hermione’s mind was racing again. What was this apparition? Was it because Amelia touched the symbol on her neck? Or was it something else? Where were they?

“I need to try and contact Harry and the others” Hermione said with urgency looking around as if trying to find them near by. She took out her wand and looked at it. Would she be able to cast anything now?

“_Expecto Patronum_”…. Nothing happened. “_Wingardum Leviosa_!” she said pointing her wand towards a branch. Nothing. Abigail’s wand was working OK, but she put that thought away.

She sighed and then looked up, extending her arm. Mail owls just needed to sense magic to come to the person that needed their services. Minutes went by and nothing happened either.

Resigned, she decided to walk around to get some ideas.

“We need to stay together, no matter what” she said to Amelia, who looked at her with concern.

“Let’s take care of each other” the girl said with determination and Hermione couldn’t help to remember the horror of Abigail in Amelia’s body. Was she still there? And what happened with the others? Were they safe?

Countless theories started to roam in Hermione’s mind. If what Abigail said was true, she had played an important part on whatever was happening right now. Could she be able to stop all of this?

“Let’s assume that we can teleport somehow. Why the beach? And the woods?” Hermione said out loud trying to put her thoughts away.

“That may be my fault” Amelia said sheepishly. “Before I woke up at the beach I felt that I was going to die without knowing the sea, and the second time I felt the same and I kept thinking about the forest where we were traveling with Kaleipus and the others” she finished with a sad tone.

“Interesting. It may be possible that you can control it.”

“OK. Tell me what to do”

“Try to think about a place you want to go”

Amelia nodded and then she came closer to Hermione, put her hand around her neck and looked at her before touching the symbol. One nod from Hermione told her that they were ready. Darkness and then they were inside a house… it was Amelia’s store. As soon as they apparated they heard voices, a girl and a man. They looked around and saw a man painting a design in the ceiling, and a very young Amelia with a book in her hands. They were looking around, as if trying to find the source of a sound. It hit Amelia right then and there and before Hermione could open her mouth, she touched her neck and dissappeared again. Soon they were in the same forest as before.

“It was me! Did you see me? And my father? It was me!” Amelia was thrilled. “Remember that I told you about it! I heard _US_ when I was there! It was me!”

Hermione was trying to find the meaning to this. In apparition, you travel from one location to a different one, but what they just did was meddling with time! And there wasn’t any time turner around…. How could they have traveled back in time? And so many years! Amelia looked as if she was a little girl. She remembered Abigail´s words about conquering time and space, but how could Amelia be doing that? Was Abigail behind all of this? There were too many questions.

“That was strange… did you think about your father?” Hermione asked her.

“I thought about going home for a second, and then my father came to mind, I guess that was enough. I can’t believe I saw him once again!” she said with watery eyes. “Do you think he could see me? He may be able to meet me as a grown-up…”

“Let me stop you right there” Hermione said very serious. “Meddling with time is an awful idea. Terrible things could happen if you are not careful. I read all about it. There could be serious consequences if we change even the smallest detail in the past!”

“I had no idea, but it makes sense. Should we try again? Or is it too dangerous?” Amelia asked.

“We should definitely try again, we need to get to the others, but you need to be able to do it correctly. Apparition is one of the most difficult disciplines for wizards, you need to be aware of the three D's: Destination, Determination and Deliberation. Try to focus on that, please” Hermione said with a small smile.

Amelia closed her eyes and then nodded. She did the same as before and soon enough they were engulfed in darkness once more.

The sound of people running away made them look around. They were in Amelia’s store and they could clearly see the customers going away and then Hermione and Amelia from the past were looking around, for a second Amelia had the impulse to go and talk to their past beings, but she remembered what Hermione told her just seconds ago. She made them dissappear once again and they appeared in the same forest as before.

“That means… it was me all along.” Amelia said quietly and looking at nothing in particular. Hermione was trying to find an explanation to all of this, but it all came back to Abigail.

“OK. We can’t travel safely if we are going to face the past. There must be no interaction at all! We could do a lot of damage.” Hermione was pacing around thinking. “How are we going to get back to Harry and the others now?”

“Let me try one more time” Amelia said an she looked so serious that it was almost as if Abigail was in charge again. Hermione shuddered, and then she had an idea.

“Amelia, there is something I have to tell you before we return to the others… Do you know the name Abigail Prinn?”

Amelia gulped before saying that she heard the name once or twice, but she never asked about it.

“I had the feeling that bad things were associated with that name, and I just assumed that it was about an old relative who had done a bad business or something” she said shyly.

“Something happened... and we believe that she managed to conjured a demon of some sort. Somehow she returned to this time… and she did it through your body. She said the spell had worked and…”

“Wait!” Amelia was shaking and looking wide eyed, “she said?! She was in my body?”

“I’m afraid so, yes.” Hermione looked down and tried to find the right words. Amelia started to shake as if trying to get rid of the feeling of someone else being inside her own body. She started to get desperate when Hermione approached her and grabbed her by the shoulders. Amelia inmediatly calmed. She looked to Hermione’s eyes, then grabbed her arms and slowly put them down, until they were holding hands

“So right now she’s like Schrödinger's cat…” Amelia said and Hermione looked at her and let out a giggle, despite everything that was happening, it was refreshing to talk to someone who likes books and information as much as her. If only she had read the books that Narcissa found with more attention… but they had no way to find out about what Abigail had done. It was frustrating to know that they could have avoided all of this, Cameron and Dora could be alive…

“I´m sorry” Amelia said truthfully, interrupting Hermione’s abstraction by releasing her hands.

“It’s not your fault, but I’m afraid that she may still be around, I would like to help you, but I really don’t know how” now it was Hermione who felt like crying. “I’m trying to find a way to bring you back if she ever gets control of your body again...”

“You could say…” Amelia blushed.

“Say what?” Hermione asked tilting her head.

“Your name” she said talking to the ground. Then she looked up with determination. “You are all I need to remember everything that has happened”.

“That’s… OK. Yes, I will” Hermione smiled fondly at her.

As soon as the darkness surrounded them once again, Hermione knew there was something different this time. The feeling of darkness lasted longer, and suddenly she felt as if there was a Dementor absorving her happiness. It was so dark, that even though she had her eyes open, she couldn’t understand where they were. She felt as if floating in space, no sky visible above, nor ground below. Amelia was holding her hand and they were looking around, astonished. When she finally felt something solid under her feet, it was only to find herself on a surface that didn’t look solid at all, it was almost gelatinous. The only light seemed to come from the orbs floating around. And there they were, standing with difficulty and looking to an enormous being that could be only described as a demon made of a conglomeration of glowing spheres. Its appearance was out of this world.

Smaller demons were starting to form in front of them and soon they were surrounded by hundreds of horrible creatures that belonged to the most horrible nightmares, when nothing is making sense. They were producing a horrible sound, like hundreds of voices laughing, screaming, yelling, and at the same time, it didn’t resemble anything they had heard before.

A gigantic head turn to look at them. Black, red and black again… there were no colours around. They were standing right in front of the giant demon and they saw how all the other creatures made way for it to have a clear view of the two girls.

Hermione and Amelia were frozen, but it was the former who acted first. Before the demon could touch them with huge tentacles that were getting closer to them, she grabbed Amelia’s hand and urged her to dissappear, but the girl was in shock and didn’t react. Hermione did the only thing her mind let her, she took Amelia’s wand and inmediately felt the magic inside it, a burst of light erupted from it and then darkness. Hermione was thinking hard about Harry and the others with her eyes closed and the wand in her hand, and when she sensed that the trip was over, she opened her eyes really slowly, as if she was afraid of what she could see.

It was dark. The mountains made a strange shape against the moonlight. The silhouettes she saw before were still sending beams of shadows to the sky. The stone pillars were slightly glowing and she saw Henry hidden behind one of them. He was looking directly to the right side, where Harry, Narcissa and Stanley were looking desperate and defeated at the same time.

She was about to yell back, when she noticed that she had no voice at all. She looked at Amelia and her blood froze when she saw her looking straight to her face, a smile on her lips.

“Welcome back, Miss Granger” she said at the same time as she took her wand from Hermione's trembling hands.


	19. Yog-Sothoth

The silence that surrounded them was deafening. Harry and Narcissa looked around and saw in horror how the silhouettes stopped what they were doing and turned to face them.

Narcissa was carrying the present from Kaleipus in a beautiful necklace. It had the Felix Felicis that Stanley gave them what felt like ages ago. In less than a second the bottle with the precious and golden liquid was open, she drank from it and then handed it to Harry, who did the same. Stanley refused to take anything. He didn’t look so good, but still he stood up with his wand pointing pass Harry and Narcissa, they heard him saying something in a weak voice and fell to the ground. He looked really pale. When they turned to see who he was pointing at, their blood froze.

“Interesting. I did not think you would still be around.” Abigail’s voice reached them and they turned to face her. Hermione was right at her side. Her eyes were a little foggy.

Narcissa and Harry sent jets of lights from their wands with the intention of capturing her, but Abigail was faster and made the spells bounce. She waved her forefinger from left to right, “No, no no… that is not acceptable anymore”.

She pointed her wand at them and a bright purple beam crossed the distance. Stanley launched himself in front of Harry and the beam hit him hard on the chest. He fell to the ground, motionless. Narcissa bent over next to him and looked at Harry, “He’s gone”.

“He had little time anyway. To pass my barriers he had to sacrifice more than blood…” Abigail said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Abigail and Hermione walked until they were a few feet away and before Harry or Narcissa could say anything, Abigail petrified them once again.

Hermione made no sign of seeing them. She was looking at nothing in particular.

Abigail looked at them and smiled. “I was expecting a fight, but I have to admit that this took me by surprise, I still do not understand how a centaur possesses this kind of magic.” She looked at her bracelets and they broke apart, falling into pieces to the ground. Then, she made a sign to the silhouettes, who turned to the sky and resumed their sending of shadows.

“I am going to conquer time and space and, as you can see, you can not stop it now” she said looking at the sky.

Narcissa followed her eyes and looked at the sky too. What she saw made her blood freeze once again, and if she could move, she would surely fall to her knees.

In the sky, following the dark stream of shadows that the silhouettes were sending, a gigantic demon made of tentacles and spheres was approaching so slowly that it was like watching it in slow motion. The light from the moon let them see how the clouds dissappeared to it sides, and the dark aura that surrounded it was horrifying.

Nothing could have prepared Narcissa for this. She closed her eyes and thought hard about every possible solution to this situation, and felt something warm inside of her as she recognized the help from Felix Felicis. When she opened her eyes she felt Henry trying to communicate with her. She immediately opened her mind.

“I have the means to stop this demon. We need to wait for the right moment for it to work properly. You will need to stop Harry, I have the feeling that he will try to interfere with the process in order to save the girl” Henry looked from her to Hermione.

“Is she going to die?” Narcissa asked him in the same way.

“I don’t know, but I will do everything I can to stop it. If we fail, this world will be destroyed”.

“I understand. Is there anything I can do?”

“Not for now. Just stop Harry when the time comes”

Before Narcissa could ask anything else, Abigail and Hermione reached the spot where the cauldron was. Abigail looked at Hermione, said something and then left her there. Harry wanted to run to her side, but he couldn’t move. He couldn’t even move her mouth. Narcissa was also paralized to the spot.

“Now, the time has come to finish what it was started centuries ago. The servant’s blood has survived the passage of time. The magic has been matured, transformed and absorved” at this, she looked at her wand and at Hermione, who looked as if in a trance.

“This time nothing will interrupt us, right?” she said to Hermione, who remained motionless. “I have waited too long for someone like you… and now here you are, a few steps away of your destiny!” she said as she reached the cauldron. “Yes…” she continued as she caressed the symbols that were shining on her wand, “muggleborns have always been underestimated. Wizards really do not appreciate all the benefits of a completely new line of magic. I could sense that the magic within you was exceptional, nurtured and perfected from the very beginning. And now the potion prepared centuries ago and protected by generations of my guardians is running through your veins. The final step is here and you will not like it, I am afraid.”

Abigail was facing Hermione, who lifted a few inches from the ground. A golden aura surrounded her and the demon was clearly atracted to it, speeding up to reach its destination. Abigail lift her arms mimicking the silouhettes, a rush of magic could be sensed flowing directly to the giant demon.

_Yog-Sothoth_ was approaching more and more and Narcissa and Harry were looking in horror how this was happening, but at the same time they noticed that some feeling was returning to their limbs. Apparently, Abigail was using almost all of her magic to attract her master.

Narcissa looked at Harry and tried to communicate with him, but he had eyes only for Hermione. She knew that his first action after recovering movement would be to run next to her, but she couldn’t allow that. She was the first to notice that she wasn’t petrified anymore. She saw Harry starting to run to Hermione, but she was faster. Her years among death eaters left her some very useful abilities and one of them was the ability to move from one point to another in a whirlwind of darkness, this allowed her to catch Harry as soon as she saw the first movement. She hold him firmly and tried to explain as quiet as possible, before Abigail could noticed that they were actually moving. But Harry didn’t listen. He was sure that Felix Felicis would help him save his friend.

“_**Petrificus Totalus**_” Narcissa murmured. Harry was frozen one more time and with a look of horror on his face. “I’m really sorry Harry, it’s the only way”.

Abigail looked at them to check if they were still petrified and then, satisfied and smiling, she looked up once more, the demon was almost reaching the ground. At this, Henry run as fast as he could and repeating what Michael had done in the past, he came closer with his hand with the cross held high, but he wasn’t fast enough.

A tentacle was formed from the inside of the demon and before anyone could do anything, Henry was pulverized on the spot. The cross and the elixir fell to the ground. Abigail was so concentrated with sending her magic to the demon that she missed this crucial event and Hermione looked at this without any reaction at all, but inside, she was screaming.


	20. The Magic Within

Narcissa quickly gathered the cross and the elixir, recalling what Henry had shared with her.

Raising the cross with her right hand and holding the elixir firm in the other, she approached the demon saying the same words Michael had used centuries ago. After she throw the elixir right to the center of the creature, the most horrible sound reached their ears. The silouethes were quickly absorved by the giant demon, who started to disintegrate and return to the dark space it came from. Abigail started to scream wildly and chased Narcissa, who was faster and, with the aid of Felix Felicis, she was having no trouble to elude Abigail’s attacks.

Hermione felt the remaining of her magic fighting to stay within her. She focused on the feeling. In a matter of seconds every encounter with magic crossed her mind. Since the first time when she was a child and had no idea how she could turn the pages of books without touching them, which was very useful when reading. All of her adventures with Harry and Ron. The stress of the horcruxes, the feeling of dispair before the Battle of Hogwarts. The hope and the joy of defeating evil. And then the memory of Amelia and how happy she was to find out about magic. How she reminded her of herself. No friends, bookworm and willing to prove herself.

It was enough to produce and empowering effect and soon she found herself moving her hands. She felt a warm feeling inside and tried with all of the remaining force she had left to break the spell Abigail put on her. She could feel the tiny part of her magic she still had inside and she was completely focused on it when she felt her hand move. Little by little she started to regain control of her body until she managed to open her mouth.

“**AMELIA! I KNOW YOU ARE STILL THERE! FIGHT!**” tears started to flow from Hermione’s eyes as she looked into purple eyes that were wide open.

“How did you free yourself? You should…” Abigail was beyond herself, she looked wildly around, trying to understand what had happened.

“It’s me, HERMIONE!”

“Oh no, you will not...” Abigail started to say and then stopped talking abruptly at the same time as she looked at her hands and the rest of her body. She put her hands in her head and started to writhe.

Hermione looked at the cauldron. She knew that it needed to be destroyed in order to finish with this nightmare. If only she could do magic… she saw Abigail’s wand lying on the floor next to her, she was still fighting with herself. She took it and noticed that the tingling sensation was still there. She could feel her own magic flowing inside of the wand, trying to return to her. Abigail was about to stand up when Hermione did the only thing that she could.

“_Confringo_!” she said pointing the wand to the cauldron. The beam that erupted from the wand was so strong that it destroyed it completely.

Fragments of the cauldron flew around them and the contents were absorved in the ground. Abigail tried to move, but her body didn’t respond as instructed.

“My name is Hermione Granger, and I will do everything I can to stop you from harming Amelia!” she said and a whirlwind started to form at her feet. Her hair was tousled and there were leaves and small pebbles floating around. She could feel it, there was a huge amount of magic around and inside of her.

“Hermione!” Narcissa’s voice reached her and she looked at her

If Narcissa had been surprised before, it was nothing compared to what she was feeling right now. Hermione had a golden aura surrounding her that reminded Narcissa of old paintings of angels.

“_Accio bottle_” Hermione said pointing to an astonished Narcissa, the bottle came flying to her hand and she took a big sip. Once the liquid luck was running through her throat, she knew what she had to do now.

She had the wand in her hands and she could feel the magic dancing inside… and then it went right into her. Flowing through her veins and among whatever element magic clinges to. Her whole body felt different and words of the past came to her clever mind:

“_The Magic Within is one of the most powerful elements in the world. It belongs to us. Our magic flows in our blood, in our souls and encompasses everything we do. Only a handful of times through history a wizard or witch was able to harness 100% of the magic, but these records are restricted to public use in order to prevent people from pursuing this and loosing their minds._”

\- “Bathilda Bagshot was a wise woman” she thought to herself.

She was ready and she knew it. She pointed the wand right to Amelia’s heart and a golden ray crossed her chest and it lifted her for a second. Then, the most extraordinary thing happened. Abigail started to divide herself from Amelia.

“I refuse to believe this!” Abigail said looking up to where her master was just moments ago.

“YOU!” the woman said to an unconscious Amelia in an angry voice. “How are you still alive! You were supposed to fade away in the spirit world. Your destiny is to become part of me and, together, we would conquer time and space” she said this with a crazy look on her face.

Amelia slowly opened her eyes and the first image made her smile. It was Hermione looking down at her. Then, she felt oher set of eyes looking straight to her. It was Abigail… or what was left of her. She was slowly fading and Amelia couldn’t help but feel sorry for the woman. In spite of everything, this was the only relative she knew besides her father.

“How are you not a dark witch!? My blood line was supposed to continue the dark arts… my master was...” Abigail was saying with an increasingly weak voice, until she just dissappeared.

“She never anticipated a pure soul like you, Amelia” Narcissa said as she came closer.

“I’m not sure I would use the word “pure”, but I understand. I felt the darkness of her soul, I would never do what she did. I don’t want power, I just want to be happy.” She looked at Hermione, who was still slightly glowing, and asked her very softly “Do you think that we could still be friends?”

“I’m actually counting on that! There are too many things we need to talk about” Hermione said with a small smile.

Harry was looking down when he said that he was ashamed of not being helpful. “Stanley died saving me!”. Amelia stood up and walked to Harry. “There was nothing you could do for him. I knew what Abigail did and that wasn’t going to be a pretty death. I’m so sorry Harry… if it weren’t for me…” Harry immediately looked at her and felt guilty. He had been in that same situation too many times before to understand that feeling.

“There are things out of our control and sometimes, even the most powerful potion won't be helpful if we don't do our part.” at this he looked at Narcissa with gratitude. She just nodded with a very small smile.

“I believe we need to pay tribute to some new heroes.” He took out a bottle from the bag he was carrying and four glasses.

“To Henry, the brave vampire who found the way to defeat the ancient evil” Narcissa said with solemn voice.

“To Stanley, the wizard who gave his life to help us until the end”. Harry said with respect.

“And to Cameron and Dora for their huge sacrifice.” Hermione finished with a whisper.

They drank for their lost friends and looking around, they knew that this was a friendship that was going to last. There is something about life threatening experiences that tend to unite the people involved in them. And this was a really unforgettable experience!

\--------------------

Hermione woke up and felt a parchment stuck to her face. A knock… or was it the second one?

\- “Wait… what?...”

Her question was interrupted by another knock, this time a voice came from the other side of the door.

\- “Miss Granger… are you there? It’s Amelia. Amelia Prinn”.

\- “Ye... Yes! Just a minute!” she said still a little groggy.

Memories returned to her. Amelia Prinn was going to be her new assistant. She came from an ancient wizarding family across the ocean.

\- “Well… that would be a very interesting conversation topic”, she said to herself while thinking that she will send a letter to George Weasley about his new sleeping potion, amazed with the level of details in her dream. She had asked George for help, since she had some trouble sleeping. He promised her a new product that he was testing himself, but as far as Hermione knew, she would definitely prefer a dreamless sleep next time.

She opened the door and a beautiful young woman almost her own age was standing on the other side.

“Miss Granger, what an honour” she said while extending her hand to Hermione.

“Call me Hermione, please.” She shook her hand and an electric shock startled her. Apparently the same happened to Amelia, who looked surprised, but didn’t make any comment. Instead, she seemed really interested in Hermione’s office.

“Please come in”. Hermione closed her door with a frown.

Amelia looked around in awe to the collection of books and almost grabbed one, but stopped.

“Please take whatever you want” Hermione said with a smile. It’s been a while since the last time someone was interested in her little library.

“I’m sorry, I just love books and you have some very interesting titles here” Amelia said blushing.

“Please wait here while I get your previous letter. I have it around…” Hermione said and turn to her desk.

Amelia approached the coffee table and took something in her hands.

“Oh! This is gorgeous! Is it goblin made?”

Hermione turn to look at what she was holding and her eyes widened with surprise. It was a beautiful and transparent amulet... there was no mistake. It was the same.

“No… " she said appalled. "I’m pretty sure it’s centaur made…”


End file.
